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FORD   IDEALS 


Being  a  Selection  from 

"Mr.  Ford's   Page" 

in 
The  Dearborn  Independent 


Published  by 

The  Dearborn  Publishing  Company 

Dearborn,  Michigan 
1922 


Preface 


FROM  the  first  number  of  The  Dearborn  Independ- 
ent under  the  presidency  of  Henry  Ford,  there  has 
been  presented  weekly  a  department  entitled  "Mr. 
Ford's  Page"  in  which  it  is  sought  to  offer  the  ideas 
of  Mr.  Ford  upon  various  questions. 

This  page  has  enjoyed  a  very  wide  reading  both  at 
home  and  abroad  and  has  been  frequently  reproduced 
in  many  languages  and  in  many  parts  of  the  world. 
Its  soundness  and  substantiality,  its  dependence  upon 
the  force  of  ideas  rather  than  exuberance  of  statement, 
no  doubt  account  in  large  measure  for  the  number 
of  friends  it  has  made. 

The  present  selection  for  preservation  in  a  volume 
has  been  occasioned  by  the  demand  of  readers  of  'J  he 
Dearborn  Independent  not  only  for  back  copies  of 
certain  numbers  of  "Mr.  Ford's  Page."  but  also  the 
very  wide  request  for  the  "page"  in  book  form.  This 
is  the  sole  reason  for  the  present  volume's  existence. 
The  selection  has  been  made  upon  the  principle  of 
popularity  as  expressed  by  our  readers,  and  also  upon 
the  principle  of  diversity,  that  the  reader  may  have  a 
variety  of  subjects  to  consider.  A  glance  at  the  table 
of  contents  will  indicate  the  wide  range  which  the 
discussions  cover. 

One  characteristic  of  the  page  will  be  immediately 
apj)arent  to  the  reader,  namely,  that  independence  of 
thought  has  not  brought  with  it  fantastic  angles  or 
impossible  counsels.  It  is  not  independence  that  makes 
for  unsoundness;  a  lack  of  independence  is  the  fruit- 
ful cause  of  unsoundness  because  it  seeks  to  square 
life  with  what  is  wrong  to  begin  with.  Independence 
is  always  giving  life  a  chance  to  get  upon  a  right  basis. 
It  is  a  constant  renewal,  a  constant  liberation  from  the 
human  tendency  to  warpcdness.  Common  sense  is 
the  most  dynamic  and  independent  force  on  the  i)lanet. 

The  question  has  often  lieen  asked  what  ])art  Mr. 
I-'ord    personally    takes    in    the    preparation    of    "Mr. 


PREFACE 

Ford's  Page."  Every  essential  part.  He  supplies  the 
ideas.  Very  often  he  supplies  the  words  in  which  his 
ideas  are  set  forth.  He  does  not  manipulate  the  type- 
writer nor  does  he  occupy  himself  with  the  detail  of 
seeing  the  copy  through  the  press,  but  the  entire  in- 
spiration, the  point  of  view,  the  resistless  analysis,  the 
ripeness  of  judgment,  are  his.  Without  him  there 
would  be  no  "Mr.  Ford's  Page." 

This  volume  is  sent  out  in  the  confidence  that  it 
represents  a  fair  selection  of  the  material  that  has 
appeared  up  to  this  time. 

February,  1922. 


Contents 


Opposite   Views— And    Both    Right !  9 

"Xo  Help  Wanted" — An  Untrue  Sign  13 

Managers  ^Must  Share  the  Bhinie  17 

On    Taking   Sides  21 

Wrong  Ripens  and  Rots — a  Fact  Worth  Considering  25 

Poisons  That  Creep  Into  Industry  29 

lie  Very  Careful  of  Success  33 

Who  Ts  the  Real  "Owner"?  2,7 

"Swelled  Head"  in   Business  41 

Regarding  Charity,  Welfare  Work  and  O.her  Matters  45 

Where  High  Wages  Begin  49 

The  Army   Is  Neyer  "Laid   Off"  55 

Prevention   Is   Better  Than   Sympathy  61 

Success   Plays   Xo   Favorites  67 

Personal    Relations — Their    Importance    for    Life  74 

Cultiyatc   Your   Own   Market  81 

"Labor  and  Capital"  Are  False  Terms  87 

The  Right  of  a  Man  to  His  Work  94 

The  Fear  of  Change  99 

How  Much  Domestic  Trouble  Is  Preventable?  106 

Farming — the   I'^ood-Raising   Industry  113 

"A  I'ew  Strong  Instincts  and  a  I'ew  Plain  Rules"  119 

The  I-'armer — >s'aturi-'s  Partner  124 

Limitations   Are   Guide    Posts.   Xot    Barriers  129 

All  Men  Are  Created  Xeedful  134 

Can   You  ]\Iakc  Your  Job   Bigger?  139 

A   Xation   of   Pioneer   Blood  144 

Human   Xature  and  the  Social   System  149 

The   Modern   City — A    Pestiferous   (jrowth  154 

Catching  the   Boss's   l-'.ye  159 

Patriotism   an    Inclusive    Emotion  164 

I'alse   "Success    Philosophy"  169 

Com])etition   and   Co-operation  174 

Land   Is  the  Basic  Fact  179 

Ideals   X'ersus    Ideas  1X4 

What    Is    l^ducation — Cargo   or    Motive    Power?  189 

When    in    Doubt  — Raise  Wages!  194 

Humanity    Is  Our   I'.asic  Wealth  l')9 

Managers   and    Men    Are    Partners  204 

New    Paths   to    h'anie  20'' 

Let    l-'.very    Man    Think    for    lliniselt  214 

Cniversal    Training — Ves.    for    CMfultuss  219 

Strike    Profiteers    Are    the    Can-e    of    Strikes  224 

Cnrest    Is   Xot    Disorder  ll*-) 
Lmploxnieiit    I,s  Creater   Than   "l-lmployer"  or   "Linplos  e"     234 


CONTENTS 

Profit  and  Cost  in  a  Day's  Work  239 

Who  Is  the  Producer?  244 

All  Are  Members  of  the  Consuming  Class  249 

Every  Man  Needs  Elbow  Room  253 

The  Need  of  Social  Blueprints  257 

Party  Politics  261 

Honest  and  Dishonest  Propaganda  265 

Grow  Along  With  the   Business  269 

Revolutions  Not  Promoters  of  Progress  273 

The  Obstructionist  277 

Would  the  Farmers  Strike?  281 

Who  Is  Their  Boss?  285 

The  American  Shop  289 

The  Small  Town  293 

Man's  Laws  and  Nature's  Law  297 

The  Fact  Shortage  301 

Should  Married  Women  Work?  305 

The   Story   of  Jones  309 

What  It  Costs  for  War  313 

Paying  for  Greed's  Mistakes  317 

Administration  Versus  Government  321 

Loyalty  Has  Two  Sides  325 

What  Shall  Prevent  War?  329 

The  County  Fair  333 

The  Old  Ways  Were  Good  237 

It   Is  Imperfect— But  It  Works  341 

A   New  Year  345 

How  It  Will  Be  Solved  349 

Lining  Up  on  Your  Own  Side  353 

Change   Is   Not  Always   Progr'.'ss  357 

In  Bondage  to  a  Re])utation  361 

l^epression,   First   Step   Back  to   Normalcy  365 

I'lattcry  Used  as  Bribery  369 

Inflated   Prosperity  the  Real   "Bad   Times"  373 

Choosing  and  Being  Chosen  377 

Can   You  Stand  Friction?  381 

If  You're  Settled  You're  Sagging  385 

When  Not  to  Borrow  Money  389 

Tariff — Taxes — Tr^nsi)ortation  393 

Illusions  Are  Not  Faith  397 

What  Makes   Immigration  a  "Problem"?  401 

The  Three  Foundation  Arts  405 

A  F"ew  Remarks  on  Education  409 

Common   Life   Is   Standard  and   Best  413 

Discouraging  People  From   Thinking  417 

Getting  Rid  of  Fear  and  Failure  421 

The  Exodus  From  the  Cities  425 

Use  Is  Better  Than  Economy  429 

Interest  Robbery  in  Bonus  Loan  433 

On  Being  Fit  for  the  New  Era  437 

Much    Nonsense    in    Titles  441 

Developing   Talent   in   a   Small   Conununily  445 

Parties   Arc    Born,    Not   Made  449 


Opposite  Views — And 
Both  Right! 

MOST  of  the  things  which  people  say  they  see,  are 
actually  seen.  There  is  no  imagination  about  it. 
The  pessimist  who  sees  things  going  to  pieces,  is  not 
deluded;  he  is  correctly  reporting  what  he  actually 
sees.  The  optimist  who  sees  things  soaring  up  to  the 
height  of  perfection  is  an  equally  good  reporter — he 
is  not  fooling  us  or  himself — he  sees  what  he  says 
he  sees. 

But  the  trouble  is,  too  many  people  are  doing  all 
their  seeing  within  too  narrow  limits,  and  while  their 
reports  of  what  they  see  are  true,  they  are  not  com- 
prehensive. There  is  nothing  more  likely  to  be  mis- 
leading than  a  field  of  vision  so  narrow  as  to  leave  out 
part  of  the  points.  It  is  like  seeing  the  elephant  so 
limitedly  as  to  report  only  his  tail  or  tusks.  The 
animal  appears  quite  ditTerently  in  a  comprehensive 
view. 

Now,  all  this  has  an  important  application  to 
the  state  of  mind  in  which  many  people  find  themselves 
today.  There  are  perhaps  more  minds  focused  on 
economic  problems  than  ever  before,  more  people 
thinking,  or  i)crhaps  it  is  more  truthful  to  say  they 
are  wondering,  about  the  conditions  which  have  be- 
fallen human  affairs. 

It  is  probably  true  that  though  we  are  all  looking 
and  wondering,  we  do  not  sec  very  much  as  yet ;  but 
it  is  still  a  mighty  fact  that  the  minds  of  the  people 
are  focused  on  their  affairs.  Formerly  we  left  it  all 
to  the  government  or  destiny ;  but  now  the  govern- 
ments have  failed  us,  and  destiny  is  not  a  thing  to  take 
without  co-operation.  And  there  is  a  million-fold 
more  chance  of  seeing  when  we  arc  looking  than  when 
we  are  not.  That  is  the  attitude  of  people  today  ;  they 
are  looking,  and  ])resently  they  will  see. 

Some   ])e()ple   see   certain   things   going   (o    jneces. 


FORD    IDEALS 

They  see  correctly.  Certain  established  customs, 
methods,  processes,  institutions,  traditions  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  lean  upon,  are  vmdoubtedly  going 
to  pieces,  and  they  are  going  to  pieces  irrecoverably 
too. 

It  is  that  last  element — the  irrecoverability — that 
strikes  fear  to  many  people.  They  thought  that  "nor- 
malcy" meant  the  recovery  of  the  old  things,  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  old  way,  the  restoration  of  the 
old  habitual  leaning-posts.  Most  people  thought  of 
"normalcy"  in  that  way — as  yesterday  come  back. 
Rut  yesterday  is  not  coming  back. 

The  old  world  is  dead,  dead.  dead.  It  is  beyond 
recovery.  God  himself  will  not  restore  it,  and  Satan 
cannot. 

That  is  the  a  b  c  of  the  new  alphabet,  namely,  the 
old  world  is  dead.  Not  dying,  but  dead.  The  things 
you  see  going  to  pieces  are  its  funeral,  its  decay. 

If  people  would  only  learn  this  a  b  c,  it  would 
save  them  from  a  great  deal  of  confusion. 

But  the  point  is  this :  those  who  say  that  everything 
they  see  is  going  to  pieces,  are  telling  the  truth,  because 
their  eyes  arc  focused  on  the  things  ivhich  belonged 
to  the  ohi  era.  The  old  era  is  dead,  and  is  being 
buried  1)it  by  bit.  Every  day  another  fragment  of 
it  falls  into  dust. 

Now.  if  that  is  all  that  you  see — and  it  will  be  all 
that  you  see  if  it  is  all  that  you  look  for — no  wonder 
you  have  the  feeling  that  everxthing  is  going  to  pieces. 

But  if  you  turn  around  and  see  what  is  coming 
swiftly  up  behind  your  back,  as  you  gaze  apprehen- 
sively into  the  past,  you  will  get  the  other  half  of  the 
field  of  vision  :  you  will  see  the  things  that  are  to  be. 

Perhaps  you  have  seen  the  oak  take  color  in  com- 
pany with  other  trees  in  the  autumn.  Then  came  the 
rains,  and  the  other  trees  let  go  their  leaves  ;  not  so 
the  oak.  only  a  few  did  he  let  fall.  Then  came  the 
winds,  and  the  branches  of  the  other  trees  were  left 
ragged  ;  but  the  oak  held  most  of  his  leafage.  Then 
came  the  frost,  and  all  the  trees  were  stripped  clean 
and  bare  of  leaves;  h\\{  the  oak  leaves  shriveled  a  bit 
and  took  on  the  tone  of  old  Cordovan  leather,  but  for 
the  most  part  clung  to  the  parent  boughs.     They  arc 


OPPOSITK    VIEWS — AND     BOTH     RI(}nT  ! 

a  cheering  sight  in  winter,  those  shriveled  leaves  that 
defied  the  frosts  of  autumn ;  they  are  a  cheering  sight 
as  they  defy  the  winter's  snow  and  blast.  Then  win- 
ter begins  to  wane,  and  spring  is  a  promise  in  the 
air,  and  green  things  begin  to  appear,  but  still  the  oak 
holds  tenaciously  to  last  year's  foliage.  A  little  later 
and  the  leaves  begin  to  fall — in  spring.  If  you  had 
not  looked  around  upon  the  earth  to  see  what  else 
was  transpiring  there,  if  you  did  not  know  what  com- 
pensating work  was  being  done,  you  might  well  think 
that  at  last  every  leaf  in  the  world  was  about  to  go. 

But  this  is  the  fact:  the  leaves  that  stayed  longest, 
that  we  had  learned  to  associate  with  stability — those 
are  the  leaves  that  fall  before  the  new  leaves  appear. 

In  the  social  order,  is  it  not  our  seemingly  most 
strongly  established  things  that  are  beginning  to 
flutter  down  ?  Are  not  the  most  solidly  essential 
services  the  ones  that  are  now  most  under  doom? 
Certainly,  as  anyone  who  focuses  his  vision  only  on 
the  passing  things  will  tell  you.  It  is  the  collapse  of 
the  most  dominant  methods  and  institutions  that  alarms 
most  people.  Well,  it  need  not  alarm  anyone.  When 
the  leaves  of  the  strongest  tree  fall,  spring  is  here. 
If  you  will  widen  your  field  of  vision  you  will  soon 
see  other  things  springing  up  to  take  the  place  of  that 
which  is  passing. 

So,  you  have  a  choice.  \'ou  can  sit  and  look  at  the 
fading  out  of  all  that  made  the  old  "normalcy"  and 
you  can  wail  about  calamity  to  come  ;  or  you  can  stand 
uj)  and  watch  the  new  era  come  in.  looking  for  your 
place  in  its  ranks.  If  you  do  the  latter,  you  will  see 
an  entirely  differenl  state  of  facts.  It  will  not  be 
imaginati(jn.  or  mental  suggestion,  or  this  foolish 
mysticism  of  pretending  things  are  all  right  whether 
they  are  or  not;  it  will  be  fact — the  thing  is  true,  the 
new  era   LS  here. 

.\  business  man  in  a  smrill  town  said  it  all  verv 
well  the  other  day.  .Said  he:  "1  just  try  to  accustom 
myself  to  the  thought  that  1  ha\e  waked  up  in  a  new 
world.  1  don't  know  just  what  kind  of  world  it  is 
going  t(j  be.  but  I  know  it  is  my  duty  to  keep  on  the 
watch  to  fnul  out  so  that  1  may  be  readv  ft)r  it.  1 
know  there  is  going  to  be  a  new  wav  of  salesmanship, 


FORD    IDEALS 


and  I  am  trying  to  find  out  what  it  is.  I  know  I  shall 
have  to  keep  wider  awake,  and  I  am  trying  to  find 
out  on  what  lines.  I  am  in  a  new  world  and  I  have 
got  to  learn  about  it  all  over  again.  The  only  things 
that  have  carried  across  from  the  old  world  into  the 
new  are  Service  and  Honesty — but  you  can  drop  the 
'Honesty'  and  save  time,  for  when  you  say  'Service' 
you  say  it  all." 

That  is  the  attitude !  That  man  was  awake  to  the 
fact  that  the  new  era  is  here ;  he  wanted  to  be  alert  in 
all  his  senses  when  it  tried  to  teach  him  something.  He 
says  he  hasn't  learned  much  yet,  but  he  has  learned  the 
basic  thing — without  which  he  could  not  learn  any- 
thing at  all — he  has  learned  that  the  world  is  new. 
If  that  plain  fact  could  be  dinned  into  people's  heads 
and  hearts,  so  that  even  without  understanding  it  com- 
pletely, it  could  become  the  time-beat  of  their  thinking, 
a  great  deal  would  have  been  accomplished. 

Certainly  many  things  are  going  to  pieces.  They 
ought  to !  And  if  you  look  at  them  long  enough  you 
may  get  the  impression  that  everything  is  going  to 
pieces.  You  should  turn  around  and  look  the  other 
way,  and  see  the  New  Era  marching  up  the  side  of 
the  hill.  Then  you  will  see  that  although  the  ruin  of 
all  our  own  stupid,  inefficient,  unjust  and  unproductive 
methods  is  unavoidable  and  good,  the  real  cause  of 
their  disappearance  is  the  New  Way  which  is  pushing 
them  out. 

While  you  are  looking,  be  sure  and  see  it  all. 


"No  Help  Wanted"— 
An  Untrue  Sign 


THERE  are  good  signs  and  bad  signs,  but  the  most 
unwelcome  and  untruthful  sign  of  all  is  that  which 
sometimes  hangs  in  the  windows  of  business  places — 
"No  Help  Wanted."  Or,  perhaps,  it  is  not  untruthful ; 
perhaps  it  is  stating  the  exact  truth,  in  which  case  it 
is  much  worse.  It  is  one  of  those  straws  which  in- 
dicate a  certain  mental  current  which,  followed  far 
enough,  tips  the  voyager  over  destructive  falls  and 
into  roaring  abysses. 

Regard  the  world  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
"No  Help  Wanted"  sign  and  you  get  a  few  instructive 
glimpses  for  both  employers  and  employes. 

Is  it  not  plain  fact  that  in  periods  when  the  "No 
Help  W^anted"  sign  is  most  frequently  displayed,  that 
is  just  the  time  when  the  most  "Help  Wanted"  con- 
ditions appear?  It  is  rather  strange,  but  it  is  true — 
help  is  never  so  much  needed  as  when  the  signs  state 
that  it  is  not  wanted. 

What  does  the  man  looking  for  a  job  want? — 
he  wants  help.  It  is  true,  of  course,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, that  he  wants  to  ghc  help  also,  but  things  have 
become  so  turned  around  in  this  world  that  it  will  be 
generally  agreed  by  everybody  that  a  man  seeking  a 
job  is  seeking  help.  He  is  wiUing  to  i)ay  for  the  help 
with  the  service  he  can  render,  l)ut  the  main  object 
is  to  get  the  help  he  needs. 

Now,  in  these  limes,  when  in  so  many  places  the 
"No  Help -Wanted"  signs  are  seen,  when  the  pressure 
of  a  mismanaged  world  has  dislocated  all  normal  in- 
dustrial operations,  just  what  does  that  sign  mean? 
Does  it  really  mean  that  no  help  is  wanted?  Does  it 
mean  that  no  helj)  is  needed?  Is  there  any  railroad 
today  that  can  hang  out  the  "Xo  llel])  Wanted"  sign 
and  really  intend  the  deepest  significance  of  that  state- 
ment ?      Is   there   anv   government   that   can   sav   "No 


FORD    IDEALS 


Help  Wanted"?  Is  there  any  condition  whatever  on 
the   earth   today  that   justifies   that   sign? 

Every  one  of  these  is  in  the  direst  need  of  help. 

The  "No  Help  Wanted"  sign  is  a  limited  state- 
ment addressed  only  to  the  job  seeker,  and  to  him  it 
does  not  mean  "No  Help  Wanted"  at  all ;  it  means 
"We  Have  No  Help  To  Give  You." 

If  you  would  just  abbreviate  the  sign  to  read  "No 
Help,"  as  a  general  description  of  the  slough  in  which 
the  world  finds  itself  ;  and  then  if  you  would  put  up 
another  sign — "Have  You  Any  Help  to  OfTer?"  as  a 
general  description  of  the  need  of  the  world,  you 
would  go  far  toward  providing  honesty  in  signs. 

"Help  Wanted"  will  always  be  the  normal  condi- 
tion of  a  world  of  progressive  beings,  but  the  dif- 
ference between  that  normal  condition  and  the  pres- 
ent would  be  the  fact  that  the  needed  help  would 
normally  be  obtainable.  Everything  seems  to  need 
help  now,  but  it  is  not  obtainable. 

There  is  doubtless  a  feeling  of  resentment  in  some 
breasts  when  you  say  that  the  man  looking  for  a  job 
is  really  looking  for  help.  In  recent  years  we  have 
been  reared  on  a  feeling  that  we  have  certain  "rights" 
which  we  ought  to  "demand."  Yes,  we  have  rights, 
but  "demanding"  doesn't  procure  them.  Our  very 
rights  are  given  us  by  the  help  of  others.  One  of 
our  rights  is  seciu"ity  of  life  and  liberty — never  having 
lived  in  a  society  where  men  are  not  sure  of  either  of 
these,  we  do  not  vividly  appreciate  these  rights.  But 
we  could  not  enjoy  them  were  it  not  for  the  help  of 
others  in  preserving  them  for  us. 

The  same  way  with  security  of  property.  Some 
people  sneer  at  that,  too.  Well,  they  wouldn't  sneer 
at  it  if  they  knew  what  the  absence  of  it  would  mean. 
Demagogues  talked  a  long  time  about  "putting  prop- 
erty rights  above  human  rights,"  but  it  is  very  notice- 
able that  in  Russia  when  they  abolished  property 
rights,  they  abolished  human  rights  also.  \\^hen  you 
do  not  respect  the  things  that  a  man  has  gathered 
around  him  by  his  own  labor  for  the  use  of  his  family, 
you  don't  respect  his  right  to  life  Robbery  (a  prop- 
erty crime)  and  murder  (a  crime  against  life)  go  to- 
gether, whether  in  the  criminal  records  of  our  cities. 


"XO    HELP    wanted" — AN    UNTRUE    SIGN 

or  in  the  "social  revolutions"  overseas.  There  is  a 
vital  link  between  property  and  life,  just  as  there  is 
between  bread  and  life:  bread  is  property;  and  tho 
right  to  bread  is  property,  also. 

So,  we  all  have  to  have  help,  even  in  the  most  nor- 
mal times.  ^Vhen  the  business  concern  places  the 
sign  "Help  Wanted"  in  its  doorway,  meaning  that  it 
needs  more  employes,  it  is  seeking  help  just  the  same 
as  the  man  who  is  looking  for  a  job.  The  employer 
confesses  that  he  cannot  live  without  help,  and  the 
employe  confesses  the  same  thing;  it  is  true  of  all  of 
us.  We  had  better  recognize  it  and  cease  our  profit- 
less flirting  with  fine-sounding  fallacies  which  have 
collapsed  wherever  and  whenever  the  slightest  pres- 
sure of  testing  has  been  put  on  them. 

The  so-called  government  of  Russia  proclaimed 
all  the  rights,  real  and  imaginary,  in  the  category  of 
w^ild  anarchy.  It  has  failed  even  to  procure  the  right 
of  enough  to  eat.  It  was  quite  natural  that  Sovietism 
should  be  a  political  failure  as  at  present  operated, 
but  why  could  not  the  Soviets  raise  wheat?  All  that 
Russia  needed  was  bread.  But  even  the  simple  laws 
of  seedtime  and  harvest  were  ignored  by  the  so-called 
"makers  of  the  new  world."  Men  who  cannot  feed 
themselves  are  thereby  dethroned  from  the  place  of 
leadership. 

We  need  "direct  action"  of  a  constructive  sort. 
The  thing  needed  now  is  not  theory,  but  something 
that  moves. 

vSuppose  you  are  a  man  out  of  a  job.  Vou  see  a 
shop  which  says  "Xo  Help  Wanteil"  and  you  know, 
of  course,  that  the  sign  means  that  the  shop  needs 
help  before  it  can  give  any.  Ilave  you  an  idea  that 
will  start  another  wheel  turning?  Ilave  you  any 
help  to  give  that  shop?  Can  vou  o])en  an\-  chaimel 
for  the  outflow  of  its  product?  Can  vou  serve  as  an 
ignition   point    in    its  organization? 

Tlie  man  in  the  front  office  is  tied  in  a  knot  bv 
business  conditions — can  you  untie  him  and  set  him 
going  again?  lie  is  smothered  in  his  own  habit  of 
doing  things — can  you  show  him  a  \\a\-  to  shake 
loose  and  get   into  action  again? 

The  man  who  brings  lu'lj)  with  him  is  alwavs  wel- 


FORD    IDEALS 

come. .  The  world  wants  help.  It  needs  it.  It  will 
reward  the  man  who  brings  it — whether  to  a  little 
broom-shop  in  the  alley,  or  the  biggest  business  in 
the  world. 

If  you  can  set  the  smallest  business  going,  you 
have  done  something  at  which  the  biggest  men  often 
fail. 

One  point  to  consider  is  this :  help  differs  with 
the  need.  A  year  or  two  ago  the  world  asked  only 
the  kind  of  help  which  anybody  could  give,  the  help 
of  energy  and  labor  to  keep  it  moving  in  the  way  it 
was  then  going.  The  kind  of  help  then-  asked  was 
virtually  as  easy  as  pushing  business  down  hill. 

But  conditions  have  changed.  Business  arrived  at 
the  foot  of  the  hill  in  due  time.  And  now  it  needs  a 
different  kind  of  help. 

There  are,  of  course,  thousands  of  theories,  mil- 
lions of  ideas.  But  what  counts  now  is  help  to  get  up 
hill  again.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  world  is  through 
with  theories.  The  world  has  starved  on  the  best 
theories  ever  devised.  What  it  asks  is  an  object  les- 
son in  something  actually  going.  If  a  man  can  start 
even  a  wheel-barrow,  or  dirt  cart,  he  will  take  rank 
among  the  people  whom  the  world  is  waiting  for,  the 
helpers  that  the  world  must  have. 

If  a  man  can  start  himself  going,  even ;  if  he  can 
swing  out  of  his  rut  and  so  organize  his  efforts  to 
start  going  and  keep  going  at  something  which  sup- 
ports himself  and  renders  an  equivalent  to  others,  he 
has  shown  himself  to  be  of  the  quality  of  world- 
helpers. 

Great  hosts  are  out  asking  for  help.  If  they  could 
start  things  for  themselves  by  doing  needed  things 
they  never  thought  of  before,  it  would  send  such  an 
impulse  of  energetic  self-reliance  through  society,  that 
the  tide  would  turn;  for  the  tide  is  turnable. 


16 


Managers  Must  Share  the 
Blame 


THE  government  will  not  be  in  a  position  to  ad- 
vocate economy  and  efficiency  in  private  business 
until  it  has  demonstrated  these  qualities  in  public 
business.  And  the  government  will  scarcely  demon- 
strate these  qualities  until  it  gets  the  idea  that  economy 
is  more  than  the  cut-off  of  expenditure.  Economy 
has  frequently  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  amount 
of  money  being  spent,  but  with  the  wisdom  used  in 
spending  it.  The  expensivencss  of  government  is  due 
to  its  inefficiency,  and  that  cannot  be  cured  by  "saving 
money."  It  can  only  be  done  by  reorganization.  And, 
as  reorganization  frequently  means  the  cutting  out  of' 
useless  jobs,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how,  in  politics, 
very  little  of  it  is  undertaken. 

Cutting  out  jobs  has  an  inhuman  sound  and  it  can 
be  used  with  immense  effect  in  rousing  the  prejudices 
of  thoughtless  people.  If  formerly  it  required  ten  men 
to  do  a  piece  of  work,  and  a  reorganization  of  ef- 
ficiency enabled  that  same  work  to  be  done  by  nine 
men,  resulting  in  a  decrease  of  one-tenth  in  the  cost 
to  the  public,  there  is  danger  of  the  habitual  howlers 
setting  u})  a  cry  : 

"Yes,  but  what  about  the  tenth  man  who  lost  his 
job?  And  what  about  the  other  nine  men  who  must 
work  harder  to  make  up  the  tenth  man's  work?" 

The  answers  arc,  of  course,  ([uite  simple  and  easily 
understood  by  anyone  who  will  use  his  mind. 

In  the  first  place,  the  fact  that  the  work  is  now 
being  done  by  nine  men  does  not  imply  that  the  tenth 
man  is  unem])l()ye(l.  lie  is  merely  not  employed  on 
that  work,  and  the  public  is  not  unnecessarily  carrying 
the  l)ur(len  of  his  suj)[)ort  by  pa}'ing  more  than  it  ought 
on  that  work — for  after  all.  it  is  the  public  that  pays! 

An  industrial  ccjucern  that  is  wide  enough  awake 
to  reorganize  for  efficiency,  and  honest  enough   with 

17 


FORD    IDEALS 


the  public  to  charge  it  necessary  costs  and  no  more,  is 
usually  such  an  enterprising  concern  that  it  has  plenty 
of  jobs  at  which  to  employ  the  tenth  man.  It  is  bound 
to  grow,  and  growth  means  more  jobs.  A  well-man- 
aged concern  that  is  always  seeking  to  relieve  the  labor 
cost  to  the  public  is  certain  to  employ  more  men  than 
the  concern  that  loafs  along  and  makes  the  public  pay 
the  cost  of  its  mismanagement. 

That,  then,  is  a  point  worth  remembering ;  the 
tenth  man  was  an  unnecessary  cost  on  that  certain 
commodity.  The  ultimate  consumer  was  paying  him. 
But,  the  fact  that  he  was  unnecessary  on  that  par- 
ticular job  does  not  mean  that  he  is  unnecessary  in 
the  work  of  the  world,  or  even  in  the  work  of  his 
particular  shop.  It  is  a  matter  of  seeing  that  produc- 
tion costs  no  more  than  it  should,  and  that  the  public 
is  not  loaded  with  costs  which  good  management  can 
avoid. 

The  public  pays  for  all  mismanagement.  More 
than  half  the  trouble  with  the  w^orld  today  is  the 
"soldiering"  and  dilution  and  cheapness  and  ineffi- 
ciency for  which  the  people  are  paying  their  good 
money.  Wherever  two  men  are  being  paid  for  what 
one  can  do.  the  people  arc  paying  double  what  they 
ought. 

This  should  be  understood.  There  is  a  feeling 
that  employers  use  efficiency  to  increase  their  ])ersonal 
profits.  The  surplus  of  an  industrial  enterprise  is 
what  insures  it,  keeps  it  going.  Efficiency  is  not  the 
act  of  taking  a  man's  wages  from  him  and  putting  it 
in  the  money  box ;  efficiency  is  seeing  that  the  public 
is  not  being  charged  two  prices  for  one  service. 

Human  sympathy  is  a  fine  and  potent  power.  "But 
if  the  public  knew  how  much  of  its  burden  is  due  to 
the  tmnecessarily  heaped-up  cost  on  some  of  its  daily 
commodities,  they  would  be  able  to  view  this  question 
in  another  light.  The  tenth  man.  and  the  ninth  man. 
and  the  eighth  man  too.  if  possible,  should  be  lifted 
off  the  load  which  the  people  bear.  As  to  the  feeling 
that  in  such  efficiency  those  who  are  left  must  work 
beyond  what  the_\'  ought,  this  should  ])e  considered  : 
the  test  of  good  management  is  that  it  makes  work 
easier,    not    harder.      I^T'ficienc\-    that    is    obtained    h\ 


MANAGF.RS    MIST   SHARK  THE  BLAME 

loading  an  extra  burden  on  men  already  doing  a  full 
day's  work,  is  not  efficiency.  The  difference  must  be 
made  up  out  of  the  brains  of  the  managers.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  eight  men,  or  nine  men  doing  ten  men's 
work ;  it  is  a  question  of  good  management  finding 
ways  of  doing  the  same  work  with  the  lesser  number, 
the  difference  being  in  the  improvement  of  the  method 
used.  One  man  now  moves  a  casting  which  twenty 
men  formerly  strained  themselves  to  lift.  The  one 
man  now  only  presses  a  button.  The  difference  is  in 
the  methods  used,  not  in  the  greater  burden  heaped  on 
the  one  man.  In  doing  the  work  of  20  men  he  now 
docs  less  than  any  one  of  the  20  formerly  did. 

There  is  far  too  much  shortsightedness  and  false 
feeling  about  it.  This  is  the  result  of  ignorance  and 
thoughtlessness.  People  don't  realize  that  the  indus- 
trial system  htis  no  magic  about  it,  and  that  they  them- 
selves sustain  it.  When  its  wastefulness  and  care- 
lessness and  laziness  pile  up,  then  everything  stops, 
and  the  people  wonder  why ! 

This  readjustment  should  not  be  the  task  of  the 
managers  of  industry  alone  ;  the  workingman  himself 
ought  to  bear  a  part  in  it.  The  workingman  who  has 
intelligence  and  foresight  would  be  showing  great 
efficiency  in  the  management  of  his  j^rivate  afifairs  if 
he  would  shun  the  job  where  he  fell  he  was  a  sort  of 
"tifth  wheel  to  the  coach." 

Labor  can  do  half  of  this  jol)  of  readjustment  by 
simply  realizing  that  a  day's  work  means  more  than 
inerel\-  being  "on  duty''  at  the  shop  for  the  required 
number  of  hours.  It  means  giving  an  equivalent  in 
service  for  the  wage  drawn.  .\n(l  wlien  that  equivalent 
is  tampered  with  either  way — when  the  man  gives 
more  than  he  receives,  or  receives  more  than  he  gives 
— it  is  not  long  before  serious  dislocation  will  be  mani- 
fest. ICxtend  that  condition  throughout  the  country, 
and  you  have  a  complete  uj)set  of  business.  .\11  that  in- 
dustrial difficulty  means  is  the  destruction  of  basic 
e()uivalents   in    the    shop. 

Management  nuisl  share  the  blame  with  labor. 
Management  was  la/y  too;  nianagenienl  found  it  easier 
to  hire  an  additional  500  men  than  so  to  imprin-e  its 
methods  that    100  men  of   the  old    force  could  be   re- 


FORD    IDEALS 

leased  to  other  work.  The  pubHc  was  paying,  and 
business  was  booming,  and  management  didn't  care  a 
pin.  It  vwas  no  different  in  the  office  than  it  was  in 
the  shop.  The  law  of  equivalents  was  broken  just  as 
much  by  managers  as  by  workmen. 

And  the  process  of  reduction  should  go  on  among 
managers  just  as  much  as  elsewhere.  There  are  too 
many  jobs  up  in  the  front  office — and  that  is  where 
the  real  trouble  starts.  Reorganization  for  efficiency 
really  begins  where  all  the  inefficiency  came  from,  in 
the  front  office. 

As  a  matter  of  abstract  fact,  everybody  agrees  with 
the  principle  here  stated.  If  we  have  100  men  tied 
up  on  jobs  that  can  be  done  by  75,  it  is  not  only  an 
inefficient  use  of  human  effort,  it  is  also  an  unfair 
charge  against  the  public  which  must  pay  for  the 
extra  25.  The  public  has  been  doing  this  on  every 
commodity  it  has  used,  and  it  has  swamped  the  public. 
Everybody  grants  that. 

The  matter  of  jobs  is  easily  taken  care  of.  There 
are  thousands  of  things  waiting  to  be  done  in  the 
world.  There  is  productive  work  waiting  for  more 
man-power  than  the  world  possesses.  Jobs  that  are 
unnecessary  to  production  are  not  jobs.  They  are 
cancers  eating  into  the  body  of  the  people's  earnings. 
Cutting  them  out  is  curative. 

We  need  more  of  it.  It  is  the  only  way  we  can 
insure  everybody  going  back  to  work. 


^^) 


On  Taking  Sides 


THE  human  race  is  not  a  brotherhood  as  yet.  It 
may  become  so  at  some  future  time,  but  it  is  not 
so  now.  For  one  thing,  there  is  no  sentiment  of 
brotherhood  throughout  the  world.  For  another  thing, 
there  is  a  very  strong  and  well-estabHshed  sentiment 
of  strangerhood,  which  education,  civiHzation,  con- 
tact and  understanding  have  been  powerless  to  di- 
minish. 

We  so  commonly  accept  as  possible  facts,  the 
things  that  we  wish  to  be  true,  that  it  was  once  our 
habit  to  say  that  if  the  peoples  of  the  world  only  un- 
derstood each  other,  the  reign  of  perfect  amity  would 
arrive.  But  there  is  no  lack  of  suggestion  that,  in 
some  cases,  the  better  some  of  the  peoples  understand 
each  other,  the  more  they  dislike  each  other. 

It  is  not  so  very  different  in  individual  matters: 
we  accept  the  majority  of  people  because  we  do  not 
know  them;  the  majority  of  those  we  avoid  are  the 
ones  whom  we  know. 

If  it  be  true  that  there  are  in  the  world  two  or 
more  opposite  and  antagonistic  clemcnls  which  can 
never  be  reconciled  without  doing  violence  to  the  very 
nature  of  things,  then  it  follows  that  until  the  siipcrior 
element  arrives  at  mastery  and  the  inferior  element 
is  disposed  of,  such  a  thing  as  unity  is  not  to  be 
thought  of. 

Our  present  times  are  times  of  break-up.  !Many 
people  stand  aghast  at  the  opening  scams  which  appear 
throughout  society.  There  are  rips  and  fissures  where 
apparently  all  was  cemented  into  a  solid  whole.  "What 
does  it  all  mean?"  the  i)e()ple  cr\-  in  their  anxietv.  Tt 
simi)ly  means  that  where  we  thought  there  was  unity. 
there  was  no  unity  at  all — it  was  all  veneer;  socielv 
has  been  "kidding"  itself  into  believing  that  it  could 
ignore  the  j)rof()under  princi])les  and  secure  a  su]H'r- 
licial  sort  ot  unity  b\'  the  process  of  back-slapping  and 


FORD    IDEALS 

glad-handing  and  general  meaningless  chatter  about 
human  unity. 

A  suspicion  of  this  is  always  with  mankind.  "Let 
sleeping  dogs  lie,"  is  a  common  proverb,  but  it  does 
not  describe  a  secure  state  of  things.  If  security  de- 
pends upon  our  keeping  certain  dogs  asleep,  then  it 
is  not  security.  For  sleeping  dogs  will  wake,  and  then 
security  will  be  gone.  If  dogs  awake  are  dangerous, 
the  only  possible  security  is  in  taming  them  so  that 
asleep  or  awake  they  may  be  friendly,  else  remove 
them  from  any  possibility  of  doing  harm. 

Anyway,  no  matter  what  may  appeal  to  us  in  the 
form  of  theory,  the  fact  is  present  and  indisputable, 
that  there  is  in  the  world  a  new  consciousness  of  dif- 
ferences between  groups,  and  that  this  consciousness 
is  most  felt  and  is  most  manifested  in  countries  which 
most  profess  democracy.  It  is  a  popular  manifesta- 
tion, that  is,  it  appears  among  the  people,  growing  up 
out  of  them,  not  imposed  upon  them  from  above  or 
from  without. 

It  must  be  very  clear  to  anyone  who  thinks  about 
it  that  the  present  situation  could  not  have  arisen  if 
the  previous  situation  had  been  what  we  supposed  it 
to  be.  That  is,  if  everything  had  been  as  lovely  as 
we  supposed  it  to  be.  if  the  "sleeping  dogs"  were  really 
not  dangerous,  then  what  has  happened  within  the 
last  year  could  not  have  occurred.  There  were  sores 
left  unhealed,  there  were  differences  left  unsettled, 
there  were  rival  claims  left  undecided.  And  there 
never  will  be  peace  until  the  sores  are  healed  and  until 
the  differences  are  settled  and  until  the  rival  claims 
are  finally  and  rightly  adjudged. 

Now,  what  does  this  mean,  practically?  It  means 
this :  there  will  be  division  and  strife  until  the  natur- 
ally and  eternally  superior  thing  is  acknowledged  in 
its  superiority. 

"The  survival  of  the  fittest"  is  more  than  a  term 
of  science,  it  is  more  than  a  statement  reeking  with 
the  sense  of  universal  struggle,  it  is  the  declaration 
of  the  method  of  history  and  the  objective  of  destiny 
— only   the   fit   do   survive. 

The  main  difference  in  human  thinking  arises  with 
reference   to   what    constitutes  the   fitness   of   the   fit. 


ON   TAKING    SIDES 

One  side  says  that  nii^ht  makes  right,  and  the  other 
side  says  that  right  makes  might.  One  side  says  that 
the  brute  will  reign,  the  other  side  says  that  the  angel 
will  reign.  To  common  sight  it  looks  as  if  power 
would  win,  and  money,  and  influence,  and  force,  and 
majorities.  That  is  the  way  flesh-minded  men  figure 
it.  But  faith-minded  men  see  it  differently  and  more 
truly.  They  see  that  there  is  an  essential  element  of 
superiority  without  which  money,  majorities,  force, 
influence  and  prestige  are  failures  already.  The  flesh- 
minded  men  are  always  saying  that  the  swiftest  wins 
the  race  and  the  strongest  wins  the  battle.  But  his- 
tory is  sufficiently  long  for  us  to  confirm  the  truth- 
fulness of  the  faith-minded  man's  declaration  that 
"the  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the 
strong." 

But  we  nuist  not  be  misled  by  this  term  '"the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest"  into  the  delusion  that  the  fit  sur- 
vive by  struggle.  Not  so.  If  there  is  a  '"struggle  for 
life"  it  is  on  the  part  of  those  elements  which  are 
already  passing  away ;  they  struggle  to  retain  their 
place.  The  superior  elements  of  life  do  not  have  to 
struggle  to  maintain  their  place  nor  to  retain  their 
superiority.  Not  at  all ;  their  whole  strength  is  to  be 
what  they  are ;  "he  that  believeth  shall  not  make 
haste" ;  struggle  belongs  to  the   defeated. 

All  of  which  has  a  side  light  on  tolerance.  Some 
people  do  not  like  the  word.  Nevertheless  it  stands 
for  a  real  elemental  fact  in  our  civilization.  Tolerance 
is  possible  only  to  the  superior;  the  lower  elements  are 
always  intolerant.  11ie  nearer  right  a  man  is,  the 
more  tolerant  he  is  :  his  tolerance  is  in  ratio  to  his  im- 
mersion in  error.  Good  grows  and  multiplies  of  itself 
and  crowds  wrong  to  the  corners;  it  is  wrong  that 
struggles  and  fights;  the  good  does  not  have  to. 

What  is  occurring  in  the  world  t()(la\-  is  this: 
under  a  false  iK^tion  that  \ital  dilTen-nccs  could  be 
patched  up  by  a  specious  attempt  at  "good  ft-llowshi])," 
the  world  has  gone  along  for  nianv  vears  trving  to 
])retend  that  nothing  mattered  nuich  so  long  as  nothing 
interfered  with  our  fun  or  our  pm"suit  of  nu)nev.  It 
has  been  mostly  pretense,  a  rosy  cloud  of  words  with- 
out meaning. 

23 


FORD    IDEALS 

Well,  reality  has  overtaken  us  again,  as  it  always 
will.  There  are  strains  of  blood  that  will  not  mix, 
there  are  great  group  ideas  and  ideals  that  will  never' 
agree,  there  are  great  contrary  claims  that  will  never 
be  reconciled.  We  have  been  pretending  that  it  doesn't 
matter,  but  life  is  teaching  us  that  it  does  matter;  the 
differences  are  rolled  back  upon  the  consciousness  of 
humanity  once  more,  to  be  dealt  with  more  wisely 
than  we  dealt  with  it  during  the  miscalled  "era  of 
good  feeling,"  which  was  only  an  era  of  camouflage. 

A  great  deal  of  mushy  sentimentalism  has  gone 
by  the  board.  Some  people,  mistaking  the  matter, 
say  that  it  is  "idealism"  that  has  disappeared.  No, 
only  sentimentalism.  Sentimentalism  is  mushy,  and 
soft,  and  polite,  and  likes  a  nice  book  in  a  cozy  corner. 
Idealism  is  willing  to  fight,  and  be  unpopular,  and 
rouse  nasty  language  and  get  its  head  cracked,  if 
need  be,  for  the  honor  of  the  idea. 

In  the  meantime,  let  every  man  be  true  to  his  own 
position,  if  he  is  honestly  convinced  it  is  the  true  one. 
And  let  us  give  room  and  liberty  for  everyone  to 
profess  his  own  loyalty.  The  world  is  breaking  up 
into  its  component  ])arts.  Every  man  nnist  line  up 
with  the  group  to  which  his  inmost  soul  gives  its  vote. 
It  is  a  time  of  taking  sides,  and  a  man  must  take  his 
own  side.  Afterward,  when  once  again  the  position 
is  made  clear,  we  may  find  a  better  plan  of  working 
and  living  together  in  spite  of  our  differences,  and  yet 
without  denying  them. 


24 


Wrong  Ripens  and  Rots — a 
Fact  Worth  Considering 


THERE  are  many  good  people  in  the  world  who 
are  in  great  mental  distress  because  they  see  very 
clearly  the  evils  which  exist,  and  because  they  are 
impatient  to  do  away  with  them.  This  combination 
of  clear  seeing  and  impatient  spirit  is  very  destructive 
of  interior  peace,  and  many  are  running  around  with 
the  impression  that  the  rest  of  the  world  is  wrong 
because  it  takes  the  matter  less  anxiously. 

Every  man  who  is  doing  something,  knows  that 
there  are  thousands  of  people  who  have  each  chosen 
another  thing  that  they  think  he  can  do.  And  most  of 
these  thousands  are  people  who  are  troubled  with  the 
disease  just  mentioned — clear  seeing,  complicated 
with  an  impatient  spirit.  Their  home-made  prescrip- 
tion by  which  they  hope  to  cure  themselves  seems  to 
be  a  very  simple  one.  namely,  to  get  some  one  else 
started  on  the  line  of  action  which  their  impatient 
spirits  dictate. 

There  is  a  surprising  numl)cr  of  people  in  the 
world  who  would  be  immensely  relieved  if  you — "you 
are  the  one  person  in  this  world  to  do  it" — would 
simply  do  the  thing  they  want  done,  and  which  they 
are  surfe  is  the  only  proper  thing  to  do. 

It  is  a  rather  difificult  matter  to  deal  with,  because 
most  of  the  activities  proi)osed  are  good,  with  a 
promise  of  being  useful.  But  most  of  them  will  never 
be  realized  at  all,  because  they  will  never  be  done  by 
one  person  lor  all  the  rest,  l)ut  rather  by  all  the  people 
for  themselves.  And  another  reason  is:  the  ]ieoplc 
to  whom  the  work  is  given  have  the  habit  of  looking 
around  for  someone  else  to  do  it. 

What  we  overlook  is  that  only  people  can  do 
things.  It  seems  sim|)le  enough  to  say.  and  \et  it 
is  hardly  simple  enough  to  understand.  Anv  number 
of    individuals   are   bu/.zinu    around    the    world    todav 


FORD    IDEALS 

under  the  delusion  that  people  are  the  last  element  to 
he  selected,  on  the  theory  that  you  can  always  get 
the  people  if  you  can  get  the  money. 

Indeed,  that  is  the  new  process  of  beginning  a 
"good  work" — induce  somebody  to  give  money,  and 
then,  after  the  money  is  given,  the  person  who  receives 
it  will  undertake  to  find  people  to  do  the  human  side 
of  the  work ;  the  consequence  being  that  in  a  short 
time  you  discover  that  "the  work"  never  had  any 
human  element  at  all,  and  that  the  money  which  it 
certainly  had  is  gone. 

One  would  say  ofifhand :  If  you  see  a  thing  to 
be  done,  go  and  do  it.  If  you  cannot  do  it  all,  do 
what  you  can;  you  cannot  take  the  fifth  step  until 
you  have  taken  the  first  four.  If  you  cannot  do 
anything  at  all,  consider  whether  the  time  has  come 
to  do  anything.  Times  grow  ripe,  like  everything  else; 
yet  many  people  think  tli€y  can  pick  ripe  events  ofif 
green  years ;  which  cannot  be  done  any  more  than 
ripe  apples  can  be  picked  in  months  when  they  are 
green.  Many  reforms  are  ])icked  green ;  many  pro- 
gressive plantings  are  done,  not  in  mellow  soil,  but 
in  the  frozen  ground.  People  don't  observe  the  times 
and  the  seasons. 

Now,  take  the  evils  in  the  world.  They  are  many, 
and  perhaps  the  weightiest  burden  we  have  to  carry 
is  the  wonderment  that  they  are  allowed  to  exist.  But 
there  they  are.  Everybody  doesn't  see  them ;  but  you. 
let  us  say.  can  see  them  clearly.  Everybody  doesn't 
realize  how  these  evils  arc  eating  into  the  life  of  the 
people ;  but  you,  let  us  say,  see  it  so  clearly  that  it  is 
a  pain  to  you. 

Now,  you  can  spoil  your  own  life,  sour  your 
friends  and  bring  your  very  vision  into  question  by 
insisting  that  everyone  sees  exactly  what  you  see. 
They  will  see  it  when  the  time  is  ripe,  but  not  until 
then,  and  you  are  very  foolish  if  you  fret  about  it. 

There  are  men  working  day  and  night  on  the 
])roblem  of  cancer;  but  as  for  you,  you  don't  think 
nmch  of  cancer  because  it  has  not  come  within  your 
life.  And  you  would  possibly  resent  it  very  nnich  if 
a  cancer  researcher  should  continually  insist  that  you 
take   up   an   interest   in   cancer.      You   would   say,  "I 

26 


WRONG    RIPENS    AND    ROTS — A    FACT    WORTH    CONSIDERING 

don't  want  to.  I  am  not  called  to  consider  cancer. 
That  is  your  field,  not  mine."  Very  well,  you  would 
be  right. 

Don't  you  see  that  with  everyone  working  in  his 
field,  not  insisting  that  the  whole  world  come  in  also, 
much  is  being  done?  Kxcvy  little  while  reports  come 
from  this  field  or  that  of  achievements,  and  you  had 
not  even  heard  that  men  were  working  in  those  fields. 
Yet  they  are,  each  doing  his  work,  and  when  the  time 
is  ripe,  up  goes  the  flag  and  the  job  is  completed. 

There  are  sentries  along  the  frontiers  of  all  our 
problems,  men  and  women  here  and  there  who  are 
sometimes  lonely,  who  wonder  why  they  must  pace 
their  beat  alone;  but  we  know  that  where  sentries 
walk  now,  the  whole  army  will  march  soon.  Some 
peoj)le  are  sentries,  to  whom  it  is  given  to  be  on  watch, 
this  one  on  the  frontiers  of  cancer,  this  one  on  the 
frontiers  of  financial  diseases,  this  one  on  the  new 
boundaries  of  statesmanshij),  this  one  on  the  limits 
of  a  new  order  of  social  life.  Sentries  all,  but  never 
so  foolish  as  when  they  insist  on  calling  the  whole 
army  out  before  the  day  dawns. 

If  it  is  given  to  a  man  to  see  that  a  certain  condi- 
tion exists,  he  is  sentry  at  that  point  to  give  the  alarm. 
Presently  at  the  right  time,  the  time  set  by  the  director 
of  destiny,  his  work  will  bear  fruit. 

"Well,  but."  the  impatient  spirit  cries,  "what  about 
the  evil  done  in  the  meaniinie?  We  nuist  do  some- 
thing to  prevent  that !" 

Well,  do  it ! 

"But,"  says  the  impatient  sjjirit,  "1  can't  do  it." 
Rightly  said ;  you  cannot,  neither  can  anyone  else. 
You  cannot  ripen  an  a])])le  faster  than  it  will  ripen, 
and  you  camiot  rot  it  faster  than  it  \vill  rot.  These 
things  appear  to  be   under  the  law. 

The  ])eople  have  the  evils  they  deserve,  no  more, 
no  less.  l->y  "deserve"  one  does  not  mean  the  judg- 
ment which  any  human  l)eing  can  pass  as  to  desert  : 
one  means  that  all  of  us  together  have  the  sort  of 
lite  that  we  liave  made,  and  we  will  cimtinue  to  have 
it  luitil  we  are  lit  to  remake  it   in  better  (|nalit\-. 

When  ])eople  begin  to  feel  the  evil  :  wIk'U  there 
rtms  through  societ\-  a  new  coDsciousness  of  the  sin- 


FORD    IDEALS 

pidity  and  the  wrong  of  certain  things ;  when  the  false 
notes  begin  to  irritate  us ;  when  the  heat  of  indignant 
resentment  begins  to  break  out  in  thought  and  speech 
— these  are  the  first  streaks  of  the  new  day,  or,  to 
change  the  figure,  these  are  the  first  flushes  of  color 
which  begin  to  show  that  the  fruit  is  ripening  for  the 
autumn. 

What  is  needed  by  people  who  see  the  evil  is  a 
still  clearer  sight ;  they  need  to  see  that  the  evil  will 
collapse,  utterly  collapse.  And  what  people  of  im- 
patient spirit  need  to  learn  is  that  they  must  detach 
themselves  from  the  system  they  despise  arid  turn  their 
efi'orts  against  it. 

All  of  us  want  to  slay  the  giant  with  one  dramatic 
stroke  of  our  sword.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  giant 
usually  dies  from  self-generated  poisons. 

Whatever  the  moral  judgment  of  the  morally  sensi- 
tive people  is  against,  that  thing  is  inevitably  doomed. 
Though  it  become  the  social  rage  and  sweep  all  the 
people  within  the  circle  of  its  viciousness,  it  is  never- 
theless doomed.  Indeed,  when  you  see  evil  at  the 
height  of  its  popularity  and  power,  when  you  see  all 
who  speak  against  it  ridiculed  and  despised,  you  may 
be  very  glad — for  from  that  apex  the  fall  is  swift  and 
sure.  Never  forget  that.  That  is  the  ripeness  of  the 
times  for  the  fall  of  the  fruit.  It  falls,  it  rots,  its 
pulp  fertilizes  more  wholesome  growths. 


28 


Poisons  That  Creep  Into 
Industry 


IT  IS  a  pathetic  illusion  of  the  people  that  perfection 
can  be  found  in  government  or  industrial  organ- 
izations. Ceasing  to  believe  in  the  eternal  verities  they 
transfer  their  worship  to  little  gods  of  temporary 
fashion,  bowing  down  before  each  one  of  them  in 
turn  as  if  at  last  the  answer  to  all  questions  had  come. 

We  have  learned  a  great  many  things  of  recent 
years,  one  of  which  is  that  thefe  is  no  perfect  wisdom, 
foresight  or  ability.  Governments  get  things  done 
because  they  have  the  power  to  command  power,  they 
have  unlimited  means  to  ride  over  all  mistakes ;  some 
of  their  mechanical  achievements  are  at  a  cost  that 
would  be  ruinous  to  even  the  largest  privately  con- 
trolled means.  It  is  not  dishonesty,  it  is  not  wilful 
waste,  it  is  mere  human  frailty  which  even  connection 
with  a  government  does  not  cure. 

Likewise  a  great  industrial  institution.  At  first 
it  was  a  very  wonderful  thing  that  large  production 
could  be  secured.  The  very  bigness  of  growing  busi- 
ness impressed  the  mind,  and  the  increasing  flow  of 
goods  made  people  believe  that  the  apex  of  human 
daring  and  ingenuity  had  been  reached,  liut  new- 
developments  proved  that  mere  bigness  was  not  all. 
Big  production  sometimes  spelled  big  waste.  .And  so, 
a  new  element  entered  industrv — the  element  which 
took  the  name  of  "efficiency":  the  saving  of  time, 
labor,  material,  money:  j^roducing  as  good  an  article 
at  a  lower  cost,  or  perhajjs  a  much  better  article  at  a 
lower  cost,  ;ind  thus  permitting  the  buyer  to  prolil,  too. 

That  was  merely  the  addition  ol'  brain  to  brawn, 
the  mixing  of  mind  with  machiner\-. 

Then  came  sonielliing  more:  the  eli'menl  of  hu- 
manity began  to  thrust  itself  uj)  through  industrial 
development,  and  forwarcMookiiig  manufacturers  and 
managers  began  to  consider  iiioi.     It  was  natural  that 

29 


FORD    IDEALS 


the  product  should  usurp  the  center  of  the  stage  in 
its  time,  but  it  was  also  natural  that  the  producer 
should  arrive  to  share  the  attention  given  the  product. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  era  of  good  will  in 
industry.  Employers  who  were  fit  for  their  jobs  be- 
gan to  see  that  while  it  was  an  excellent  thing  that 
the  buyers  of  their  products  were  treated  honestly, 
there  were  other  people  to  consider,  too — the  men  in 
the  shop. 

Of  course,  a  great  deal  of  nonsense  accompanied 
the  eruption  of  this  new  idea.  New  ideas  always  have 
that  handicap.  Professional  "welfare  workers"  saw 
their  opportunity.  A  great  deal  of  impertinent  pa- 
ternalism was  indulged  in.  Attempts  were  made  to 
model  men  on  office-made  standards  and  to  regulate 
home  life  on  professional  theories,  and  it  did  not  work 
out  very  well,  although  it  did  accomplish  some  good 
and  was  a  hopeful  omen.  The  object  of  all  welfare 
work  ought  to  be  to  make  itself  unnecessary ;  to  estab- 
lish men  in  their  sense  of  dependency  is  most  harmful. 

But  this  arrival  of  the  idea  of  humanity  in  industry 
has  always  had  to  reckon  with  the  parasitic  nature  of 
men.  It  is  amazing  how  many  men  would  like  to 
regard  industries  as  perennial  Christmas  trees  which 
hang  with  free  fruits.  No  industry  has  anything  but 
what  is  put  into  it  by  the  men  who  are  in  it.  What 
"the  company  ought  to  do"  is  only  what  work  and 
management  permit  it  to  do. 

It  has  followed,  therefore,  that  those  who  looked 
for  the  complete  purification  of  industry  by  the  hu- 
manitarian idea,  have  been  disappointed.  In  the  very 
best  intentioned  industry,  if  it  be  of  great  size,  there 
are  undoubted  injustices  and  perhaps  even  occasional 
brutalities,  which  do  not  grow  out  of  the  policy  of 
the  industry,  but  out  of  the  nature  of  the  men  en- 
gaged in  it.  It  is  a  matter  of  observation,  and  worthy 
of  nuich  thought,  that  the  treatment  accorded  the 
workers  between  themselves,  the  cruelty  of  man  to 
man.  is  beyond  that  which  the  least  humane  manage- 
nietit  would  attempt. 

A  great  industry  is  like  a  human  body.  If  you 
analyze  it  closely  you  will  find  all  sorts  of  disease 
germs  in   it.     If  you  specialize  on  the  individual  in- 


30 


POISONS    THAT    CREEP    INTO    INDUSTRY 

justices  that  may  occur  within  it,  you  will  appear  to 
have  gathered  such  a  mass  as  spells  death  to  any  or- 
ganism or  organization.  Yet,  the  industry  goes  on. 
Its  product  is  of  service  to  the  world.  It  provides 
the  means  of  livelihood  to  thousands  of  families.  It 
fills  its  place  in  the  world  and,  in  the  main,  has  the 
respect  and  good  will  of  men. 

it  is  undeniahle  that  the  disease  germs  are  there. 
There  are  men  whose  sense  of  hitman  relations  may 
he  hlunted.  There  are  perhaps  general  methods  which 
could  he  improved.  There  is  always  the  tendency  of 
men  and  managers  to  hreak  up  into  cliciues — "ofiice 
politics,"  "shop  politics,"  as  it  is  called.  There  are 
men  who  like  to  gain  and  keep  i)ersonal  power.  There 
are  men  whose  very  ideas  circulate  as  a  poison  through 
the  organization. 

And  when  you  segregate  these  men,  these  ideas, 
these  tendencies,  you  wonder  how  in  the  name  of 
decency  the  organization  survives  ! 

Well,  it  is  just  like  isolating  a  disease  germ  in 
the  hody.  .There  is  nothing  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the 
disease  germ.  lUit  we  have  learned  that  every  healthy 
hody  contains  disease  germs.  There  is  enough  disease 
in  any  hody  to  kill  it,  if  resistance  should  fall  below 
the  retjuiremenl  of  health.  The  reason  that  the  body 
remains  healthy  even  while  carrying  disease  germs  is 
that  the  health  germs  are  in  the  majority.  You  could 
make  a  very  startling  report  on  any  body  by  merely 
finding  and  counting  the  disease  germs  within  it.  But 
it  would  not  be  a  complete  rei)()rt. 

.•\n  industrial  organization  is  like  a  human  hody  in 
that  respect.  The  poison  creeps  into  it.  There  are 
metbods  of  elimination,  of  ccnirse.  l)ut  a  certain 
amount  of  i)oison  manages  to  hn"k  around.  .\nd  the 
only  reason  U)v  the  organization  retaining  its  health 
and  activity  is  the  existence  of  the  health  germs 
which  always  resist  tbe  poison.  When  ri'sistance  lags 
or  ceases,  death  comes. 

This  is  an  idea  which  should  occupy  the  mind  of 
every  worker  in  any  industrial  concern  which  has 
this  antagonism  between  good  ideals  and  onlv  partial 
achicvenK'nts.  In  such  a  case,  men  tend  to  one  of 
two  extremes.      iMiher  the\'  condemn  the  whole  busi- 


J-ORD    IDEALS 

ness  as  one  immense  hypocrisy  living  on  false  esti- 
mates, or  they  totally  deny  that  there  is  any  evil  in 
the  business  whatever. 

Both  are  wrong.  The  evil  is  there.  But  evil  is  to 
be  resisted,  it  is  to  be  overcome  with  good,  the  poison 
is  to  be  drained  off.  That  is  the  part  of  all  who  see 
where  the  wrong  is.  It  is  a  big  mistake  so  to  focvis 
your  eyes  that  you  can  see  nothing  but  the  wrong;  it 
is  an  equally  big  mistake  to  close  your  eyes  so  that  you 
cannot  see  the  wrong  at  all.  The  evil,  if  it  is  there, 
is  to  be  recognized  and  resisted. 

And  this  also  is  true :  unless  this  warfare  against 
the  poison  is  kept  up,  it  soon  exerts  its  toxic  power 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  paralyze  all  possible  resistance. 
Some  of  this  poison  is  in  the  management ;  some  of  it 
is  in  the  shop.  It  looks  much  worse  when  it  is  found 
in  men  of  authority,  than  when  it  is  found  in  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  workers.  But  even  officials  are  not 
immune  from  penalty.  Usually  they  go  quickest  of 
all  when  they  become  poison  to  the  organization. 

Nobody  ought  to  assume  for  a  moment  that  be- 
cause something  is  wrong  it  has  got  to  stay  wrong,  or 
that  it  is  going  to  stay  wrong.  They  have  got  to  as- 
sume that,  like  a  gum  boil,  when  it  comes  to  a  head 
it  is  going  to  burst.  When  poison  becomes  so  mani- 
fest in  an  organization  that  the  men  begin  to  notice  it 
and  those  who  really  desire  the  health  of  the  institu- 
tion are  beginning  to  feel  it  keenly,  then  is  the  time 
when  it  is  just  about  ready  to  break. 

The  only  power  any  wrong  can  exert  over  us  is  to 
make  us  believe  that  it  is  here  to  stay.  Expose  its 
transient  character  and  its  sting  is  drawn. 


32 


Be  Very  Careful  of  Success 


SUC'CILSS  is  the  enemy.  It  is  the  only  enemy  that 
can  overcome  men  who  are  invincihle  to  faihire. 
Men  who  cannot  be  beaten  though  they  fail  a  score  of 
times,  men  who  cannot  be  discouraged  by  an  army 
of  difificulties,  sometimes  go  tumbling  down  as  the 
result  of  a  little  success.  More  men  are  failures  on 
account  of  success,  than  on  account  of   failure. 

It  is  very  easy  to  show  how  this  comes  to  be. 

Here  is  a  railroad  that  has  suddenly  come  to  its 
senses.  It  has  not  done  anything  very  wonderful,  it 
has  merely  roused  itself  out  of  its  loafing.  It  has  not 
introduced  a  single  new  plan,  it  has  not  practiced  a 
single  magical  formula,  it  has  simj)ly  taken  the  old. 
time-worn  system  and  tightened  up  the  bolts,  put  in 
some  grease  and  compelled  it  to  go !  It  has  done  only 
the  simplest  and  most  common-sense  things.  It  has 
cut  out  the  slack  and  the  loafing  and  the  senseless 
waste.  It  has  made  cars  and  'locomotives  and  men 
do  what  they  were  created  for — move  ! 

Now.  it  is  a  commeiUary  on  the  slough  into  which 
we  had  fallen  that  when  one  railroad  did  that  very 
simple  thing,  it  made  a  sensation.  That  reallv  is  a 
point  to  think  of.  A\'hen  the  simple,  common-sense 
thing  is  so  unusual  as  to  cause  a  sensation,  it  is  proof 
that  common  sense  is  not  being  used  verv  extensivelv. 
else  people  would  be  more  familiar  with  it. 

Hut  with  all  the  buzz  and  talk,  there  comes  another 
element,  that  most  i)eo])le  would  not  look  for.  l^verv 
man  down  the  line  knows  thai  the  railroad  is  doing 
its  work  better  than  ever  l)efore,  that  a  new  s])irit  and 
a  new  alertness  have  come  into  the  work,  that  clumsy 
duplication  and  the  necessity  for  loating  have  been 
cut  out.  And  every  man  naturallN  feels  better  about 
it.  .\nyone  who  tells  vou  that  a  man  prt'fers  the  dog's 
life  of  loafmg  to  iIk'  rt'al  life  of  going  after  sonielliing 
and  getting  it  done,  does  not  know  men. 

lU'sides  tli;it,  the  conmion-senNi'  thin*''  is  so  unu>ual 


FORD    IDEALS 


that  it  causes  a  great  deal  of  outside  talk.  Common 
sense  in  business  administration  appears  to  be  so  un- 
usual that  it  is  "news."  And  thus  the  men  on  the 
railroad  know  that  the  world  is  talking  about  the  big 
improvement  they  have  made  in  railroad  operation. 

They  make  clippings  of  the  papers  and  magazines. 
They  take  a  personal  satisfaction  (which  is  right  and 
proper)  in  all  the  praise  that  is  given.  They  enjoy 
it  thoroughly. 

But  all  the  time  they  are  unconscious  of  what  this 
praise,  and  all  this  credit  for  success,  is  doing  to  them. 
The  most  common  mistake  of  all  is  the  belief  that  when 
people  begin  to  buzz,  it  is  a  sign  that  something  has 
been  definitely  and  finally  accomplished,  that  success 
has  been  won.  We  are  such  simple  creatures  that 
we  imagine  the  race  is  run  the  moment  the  cheers 
are  heard. 

Now,  in  the  illustrative  case  of  the  railroad  which 
we  are  using,  it  is  very  easy  to  see  how  praise  and  the 
sense  of  success  works  upon  the  minds  and  energies 
of   men. 

If  the  manager  has  kept  his  head  at  all,  he  knows 
that  though  much  has  been  done  in  lifting  the  old 
system  out  of  its  rut,  it  is  not  to  be  compared  with 
what  is  yet  to  be  done.  And  just  there  is  one  of  the 
difTerences  that  mark  men:  you  find  one  type  of  men 
standing  still,  complacently  enjoying  the  little  good 
work  they  have  already  done,  smiling  over  it,  receiving 
congratulations  upon  it,  simply  sucking  it  dry  of  all 
that  can  minister  to  their  sense  of  pride  and  personal 
satisfaction. 

If  the  manager  is  of  that  type,  he  has  reached  the 
end  of  his  achievement ;  he  is  through,  so  far  as  mak- 
ing ])rogress  is  concerned.  The  man  who  thinks  he 
has  done  something,  hasn't  many  more  things  to  do. 

But  there  is  the  other  type  of  manager  who  is  so 
busy  with  the  things  yet  to  be  done  that  he  cannot 
stop  to  enthuse  over  what  has  already  been  done.  His 
is  a  long-range  program.  What  he  has  done  he  re- 
gards as  a  beginning — maybe  a  mighty  good  beginning, 
but  only  a  beginning  after  all.  His  eye  is  far  ahead 
on  plans  yet  to  be  realized,  new  ideas  yet  to  be  intro- 
duced.    He  spends  no  time  congratulating  himself.  Of 


BE  VERY  CAREFUL  OF  SUCCESS 

course,  he  misses  a  lot  of  the  soft  enjoyment  of  the 
other  type;  he  misses  a  lot  of  that  enervation  which 
comes  from  basking  in  praise  and  adulation ;  he  seems 
rather  callous  to  public  opinion — but  all  that  is  because 
he  has  not  yet  done  the  thing  for  which  he  will  perhaps 
deserve  praise. 

Now,  this  man  sees  defects  that  the  satisfied  crowd 
of  men  don't  see.  He  sends  for  his  railroaders,  and 
points  out  what  is  wrong.  He  brings  them  to  book 
on  this  dereliction  of  duty  or  that  failure  of  alertness. 
He  talks  to  them  in  a  tone  which  reveals  none  of  the 
self-satisfaction  which  they  supposed  was  the  con- 
stant atmosphere  of  the  inside  office — ^^satisfaction 
with  all  the  praise  and  buzzing  which  was  going 
around. 

"Why,  boss,"  they  seem  to  say,  "what  difference 
does  a  little  thing  like  that  make?  See  how  well  we 
are  doing.  Why,  here  is  a  newspaper  clipping  which 
says  .  .  .  .,"  and  they  go  down  into  their  pocketbooks 
for  the  cherished  bit  of  paper. 

Don't  you  see  what  the  air  of  success  does?  Don't 
you  see  how  it  has  seduced  these  men?  Don't  you 
see  that  after  fighting  failure  through,  they  are  now 
ready  to  surrender  to  a  little  success  ? 

Success  is  the  enemy.  It  brings  those  elements 
with  it  that  minister  to  our  softness.  There  are  more 
people  desiring  to  enjoy  life  than  to  contribute  some- 
thing to  life.  A  man  wants  recognition  and  reward; 
we  say  these  are  natural  desires,  and  so  they  are. 
But  when  a  man  gains  recognition,  the  temptation  is 
very  great  to  stop  and  enjoy  the  recognition.  And 
when  he  gains  reward  the  temptation  is  to  think  that 
he  has  "arrived."  Who  can  count  the  number  of  the 
men  who  have  been  halted  and  beaten  l)y  recognition 
and  reward ! 

Make  your  i)rogr.-im  so  long  and  so  bard  that  the 
])C()ple  who  praise  you  will  always  seem  to  you  to  be 
talking  about  something  very  trivial  in  comparison 
with  what  you  are  realK-  trving  to  do. 

If  success  conies  yon  will  have  to  work  twice  as 
hard  to  kee])  on  top  of  it  ;  once  it  gets  on  top  of  yon, 
then  success  becomes  yom-  failure. 

People  at  large  will  never  he  convinced  oi  this,  of 

35 


FORD    IDEALS 


course,  and  it  is  not  necessary  that  they  should.  It 
is  only  when  they  approach  the  perilous  place  of 
popular  approval  that  they  must  be  sternly  warned. 

The  people  transfer  their  own  feelings  to  the 
successful  person,  and  then  think  of  his  success  under 
those  terms.  They  see  the  statesmen  carried  aloft, 
the  ruler  exalted,  the  man  of  achievement  moving 
along  to  the  plaudits  of  the  people.  And  they  think 
how  lovely,  how  enjoyable,  how  perfectly  satisfactory 
such  a  position  must  be.  And  so  the  attainment  of 
that  loveliness  and  enjoyableness  and  satisfaction  be- 
comes their  idea  of  success.  If  they  only  knew  it, 
the  man  so  honored  was  probably  fuming  because  he 
was  wasting  his  time  to  make  a  public  holiday — he 
wanted  to  get  back  to  his  work. 

This  much  is  certain :  had  the  man  who  was  thus 
honored  behaved  himself  so  unseemly  as  to  indicate 
that  he  thought  he  deserved  all  that  adulation,  had  he 
shown  that  success  was  to  him  what  the  people  thought 
it   was,   they   would  have  dethroned   him. 

It  is  all  a  very  strange  game,  and  the  man  who  is 
deceived  thereby  is  lost.  Better  have  a  job  too  big 
for  popular  praise,  so  big  that  you  can  get  a  good 
start  on  it  before  the  cheer-S([uad  can  get  its  first  in- 
telligent glimmerings  of  what  you  are  trying  to  do. 
Then  you  will  be  free  to  work.  And  being  free  to  work 
you  will  have  achieved  the  truest  success  and  satis- 
faction. 


36 


Who  Is  the  Real  "Owner"? 


THE  question  of  ownership  is  not  so  acute  as  it 
was.  Not  lonj2^  ago  there  was  a  theory  abroad  that 
it  so-called  "private  ownership"  could  be  abolished 
and^  "public  ownership"  set  up,  then  all  our  troubles 
would  cease.  It  has  been  tried  in  various  ways,  on  a 
huge  scale  as  in  Russia,  on  a  small  scale  as  in  some 
American  cities.  The  net  result  so  far  is  this:  if  you 
propound  a  theory  that  the  cook  should  be  driven  out 
of  the  kitchen  and  that  the  whole  boarding  house 
personnel  should  be  brought  into  the  kitchen  to  super- 
intend the  cooking  of  the  steak,  you  might  be  for- 
tunate enough  to  iind  a  boarding  house  that  would  try 
out  your  theory.  But  from  the  standpoint  of  a  well- 
cooked  steak  it  is  only  a  matter  of  time  when  you  are 
going  to  call  the  cook  back. 

The  (luestion  of  ownership  will  be  settled  when  it 
ceases  to  be  aciUe  ;  that  is.  it  will  settle  itself.  What 
the  world  is  restless  about  is  the  recognition  of  cer- 
tain ideas,  not  the  general  })osition  of  the  peojile.  Ideas 
have  a  hard  time  being  born,  and  restlessness  is  part 
of  the  general  operation.  (Jnce  born,  however,  the 
effect  is  rather  greater  easiness  of  mind  than  a  strong 
overturning  of  the  fundamentals  of  life^. 

A  man  owns  what  is  given  him  in  his  personality 
and  what  he  earns  by  his  labor — tlial.  and  nothing 
else.  If  a  man  has  character,  he  owns  it;  no  one  can 
claim  a  share  in  it.  If  he  owns  self -respect  and  the 
respect  of  his  neighbors,  it  is  his.  absolutely  his.  ll 
he  has  the  gift  of  foresight,  if  he  lias  the  faculty  of 
insight,  if  he  has  the  ])ower  to  plan  and  to  manage  and 
execute,  if  he  has  the  (pialities  of  a  leader — the^e  are 
all  his  own.  The}-  are  his  in  a  personal,  private  sense. 
The  mind  and  the  eye  are  greater  reai)ers,  and  what 
they  rea])  cannot  be  taken  from  them. 

I)Ut  what  else  is  his?  W  hal  can  he  absolulely  own 
in  the  pinsical  realm?  P)y  common  consent  he  can 
own  all  that  he  needs  for  the  living  of  his  life-  -if  he 

3/ 


FORD    IDEALS 


earns  it.  Civilized  mankind  recognizes  the  investment 
of  a  man's  soul  and  body  into  his  home  and  all  the 
material  requirements  of  his  life.  That  is  what  we 
mean  by  "the  sacred  right  of  property" — property  is 
sacred  by  reason  of  the  thought  and  sweat  and  blood 
that  human  beings  have  put  into  it.  When  you  take 
that  from  a  man,  you  take  his  life.  Where  property  is 
not  respected,  life  is  not  respected. 

But  what  about  all  this  other  wealth — this  great 
expansion  of  industrial  wealth  that  we  see  all  around 
us?  This  is  what  people  mean  when  they  talk  about 
"ownership." 

Well,  take  any  big  concern  you  may'  happen  to 
think  about.  Who  made  it  what  it  is?  Everybody 
who  had  a  hand  in  it.  The  man  whose  idea  inspired 
it.  The  men  he  called  in  to  help  him.  The  public 
whose  patronage  supported  the  business.  They  all 
made  it.  They  are  the  only  ones  who  own  it  because 
they  are  using  it. 

Well,  but  what  about  the  "millions"  that  the  busi- 
ness has  made?  Ix't  us  see  where  those  millions  are. 
There  are  "millions"  in  the  buildings,  "millions"  in 
the  machinery,  "millions"  in  the  outlying  sources  of 
supply,  "millions"  in  railroads  and  tank  cars,  "mil- 
lions" in  material,  "millions"  in  goods  on  the  market. 

Now,  no  one  can  put  those  "millions"  in  his  pocket 
when  he  goes  home  at  night.  No  one  "owns"  those 
"millions."  They  are  out  in  use  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  people  all  the  time.  If  tomorrow  the 
world  should  be  turned  upside  down  and  another 
"class"  should  take  control  of  business,  it  would  have 
to  leave  the  "millions"  right  where  they  are — else  there 
would  be  no  service  nor  business. 

'J'hat  was  the  crude,  childish  thing  that  occurred  in 
Ivussia.  They  rushed  in  and  took  those  "millions" 
out  and  then  wondered  why  they  could  no  longer  pro- 
duce their  daily  bread. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  misunderstanding  about 
wealth.  Wealth  is  not  money.  Wealth  is  in  things  of 
use.  That  is  where  all  the  wealth  of  the  big  in- 
dustrial institutions  is — in  things  of  use.  All  of  it  lies 
out-of-doors.  It  cannot  be  locked  up  in  safes.  If, 
lK)\vever,  it  were  all  divided  equally,  so  that  everyone 


38 


WHO   IS   THE   REAL  "oWNER"? 

now  participating  in  its  operative  benefits  could  par- 
ticipate in  its  dead  value  as  material,  what  would  it 
amount  to? — this  one  would  have  a  few  bricks,  that 
one  half  a  wheel,  another  a  pile  of  junk. 

In  fact,  it  was  only  because  all  this  material  and 
all  this  effort  were  successfully  taken  out  of  the  field 
of  absolute  private  ownership  and  piled  together  into 
one  well-planned  whole,  that  the  public  could  be  served 
as  well  as  it  is.  Redistribute  it  all  back  to  its  private 
ownership,  and  the  public  is  left  gasping  for  every- 
thing that  it  needs. 

But  what  people  usually  have  in  mind  when  they 
talk  about  "ownership"  is  not  the  question  of  who 
ought  to  own  the  bricks  and  the  mortar  and  the  fur- 
naces and  the  mills,  but  rather  the  question  "who  ought 
to  be  boss?"  That  is  really  the  big  question  in  most 
minds.  "Who  set  this  man  over  us  ?"  is  the  often  un- 
spoken challenge. 

Well,  this  is  very  much  like  asking,  "Who  ought 
to  be  the  tenor  in  the  quartette  ?"  Obviously,  the  man 
who  can  sing  tenor.  You  could  not  depose  Caruso. 
Let  any  theory  of  musical  democracy  come,  depose 
Caruso  to  the  musical  "proletariat" ;  very  well,  there 
is  no  substitute ;  Caruso's  gifts  are  still  his  own. 

Who  will  be  the  leader  of  the  army?  The  man 
who  can  lead.  Who  will  be  the  pilot  of  the  ship  ?  The 
man  who  knows  the  way.  Who  will  be  the  leader  of 
the  country  in  a  moral  emergency :  men  say  this  one 
or  that  one,  but  God  said  "Lincoln." 

In  lesser  things  it  is  the  same.  The  man  who  can, 
is  the  man  who  docs.  No  one  chose  the  real  leaders  of 
today;  they  came  forward  l)ccause  they  could  lead, 
and  men  followed  them  because  they  knew  a  leader. 
They  came  up  from  the  ranks,  all  of  them.  The  new 
leaders  are  in  the  ranks  now. 

Some  young  men,  poisoned  by  the  cynicism  of  a 
false  social  philosophy,  do  not  believe  this.  They  feel 
sore  within,  they  are  straining  and  stressing.  That  is 
good.  That  is  the  way  leaders  are  born.  There  is  a 
great  deal  of  that  kind  of  feeling  before  a  man  is 
forty.  Don't  interpret  it  as  rebellion,  it  is  growing 
pains.  The  old  principles  still  holcl  true.  Modern 
industrial   development   hasn't   changed   a   single    rule 

39 


rORD    IDEALS 

of  life — and  cannot !  Go  back  to  your  grandfather's 
copy  books,  and  what  the  maxims  said  then  is  true 
now.  Men  rise  today,  just  as  they  have  always  done, 
by  backing  their  native  gifts  with  their  acquired 
energy. 

This  much  is  certain :  no  one  will  long  remain 
**boss"  who  was  not  called  to  that  work  by  nature  and 
development.  It  would  be  an  extremely  simple  matter 
to  displace  all  the  "bosses"  and  leaders  today,  but  it 
would  be  an  extremely  difficult  matter  to  replace  them. 
That  was  the  trouble  in  Russia. 

But  say  that  by  force  you  do  replace  the  natural 
bosses  with  artificially  created  ones,  what  happens? 
Why,  shortly  there  is  nothing  left  to  "boss,"  the  whole 
thing  has  just  crumbled  away  into  uselessness. 

So.  there  are  correctives.  In  the  natural  course 
of  events  the  incapable  man  cannot  get  into  positions 
of  power,  but  if  through  an  unnatural,  artificial  course 
of  "pull"  or  "favor"  or  "relationship"  an  incapable 
man  does  rise  to  that  position,  natural  law  soon  begins 
to  operate :  he  fails  and  his  failure  is  apparent  to  all. 

If  there  is  a  great  industry  which  has  ceased  to 
serve  the  people ;  if  there  is  a  great  industry  whose 
leader  has  ceased  to  care  for  it  and  has  begun  to  ex- 
ploit it;  if  there  is  a  great  industry  whose  leader  has 
been  poisoned  with  the  thought.  "This  is  mine  and 
exists  for  my  benefit  alone" — you  will  not  long  be 
puzzled  about  the  problem  of  ownership.  Nature  will 
soon  settle  it. 


40 


"Swelled  Head"  in  Business 


THERR  is  a  disease  known  as  "swelled  head" 
which  may  be  contracted  in  any  line  of  activity, 
but  which  is  particularly  dangerous  in  business.  Be- 
cause of  the  inelegance  of  its  name  and  the  common- 
ness of  its  occurrence  among  light  and  giddy  youth, 
it  is  regarded  not  as  a  dangerous  disease,  but  as  some- 
thing light,  like  the  ailments  of  childhood.  We  know, 
however,  how  serious  the  ailments  of  childhood  can 
be  when  they  attack  grown  persons. 

If  we  were  to  be  very  strict  about  words,  we 
should  perhaps  say  that  the  term  "swelled  head"  was 
hardly  descriptive.  If  the  head  of  the  patient  ac- 
tually should  enlarge  and  his  brain  power  increase, 
the  disease  would  not  exist.  It  is  the  feeling  of  en- 
largement in  heads  that  have  not  enlarged  nor  ex- 
panded at  all,  that  constitutes  the  abnormal  condition. 

That  is  to  say,  the  condition  described  as  "swelled 
head"  is  a  delusion — the  patient  thinks  he  has  ex- 
panded when  he  has  not.  The  only  element  in  him 
that  has  increased  is  his  self-esteem,  and  when  that 
increases  out  of  proportion  to  everything  else,  there 
comes  an  unbalanced  condition  which  is  just  as  danger- 
ous to  his  affairs  as  insanity  is  to  society. 

This  ailment  is  not  confined  to  men  in  small  and 
unimportant  positions,  although  it  is  found  there  too  ; 
but  it  is  frequently  found  among  men  whom  tlie  world 
thinks  to  be  "l)ig  men"  because  they  wear  big  titles 
and  deal  in  big  tilings.  There  would  seem  tf)  be  little 
reason  for  nnich  swelled-headedness  among  the  "big 
men"  of  today,  for  it  is  ])recisely  in  their  iields  ihal 
all  the  big  failures  and  all  the  big  humiliations  have 
come. 

There  is.  of  course,  such  a  thing  as  a  scii<c  of  self- 
satisfaction  in  one's  work,  a  sense  of  being  able  to  do 
the  thing  recpiired,  a  sense  of  niasterv.  and  a  plain 
knowledge  of  having  accomplished  sonu-thing  wlu'u  a 
good    job   has    been    done — these    are    tlie    wholesome 


FORD    IDEALS 


flavors  and  reactions  of  honest  work.  They  are  not 
to  be  confused  with  the  disease  of  "swelled  head." 
The  difference  between  them  is  this:  the  former  has 
the  work  for  its  center;  the  latter  has  one's  self  for 
its  center.  And  self-centered  persons  (not  necessarily 
selfish  persons)  are  in  great  danger  of  letting  them- 
selves get  in  the  way  of  their  work.  They  are  in 
great  danger  of  the  delusion  that  their  work  exists 
for  their  glory. 

The  sign  of  a  little  man  is  so  various  that  it  is  next 
to  impossible  for  an  ordinarily  observant  person  to 
mistake  him.  He  never  forgets  himself.  He  is  afraid 
to  surround  himself  with  bigger  men  than  himself, 
\\ith  men  who  know  more,  or  who  can  give  him  help. 
Thus  the  little  man  is  a  fool ;  if  he  knew  where  his 
interest  lay,  he  would  surround  himself  with  the 
biggest  and  best  men,  and  by  his  just  treatment  of 
them  retain  their  services.  But  the  little  man  lives  in 
daily  dread  that  somebody  will  show  up  more  meri- 
toriously than  he,  and  he  strives  to  keep  a  false  pre- 
eminence by  seeing  to  it  that,  little  as  he  himself  may 
be,  those  who  surround  him  are  smaller  still.  This  is 
often  true  because  the  little  man  is  usually  himself  a 
subordinate  who  fears  displacement.  But  even  a  sub- 
ordinate who  can  surround  himself  with  superior  and 
efficient  assistants  is  not  in  nearly  so  much  danger  of 
displacement  as  one  who  deliberately  hammers  down 
the  standard  of  his  organization. 

The  disease  of  "swelled  head"  has  its  prelirtiinary 
symptom  in  shortsightedness.  No  one  who  can  see 
very  far  ahead  or  very  far  around,  is  ever  troubled 
with  it.  The  world  is  so  big  and  there  is  so  much  to 
be  done  that  a  man  can  contract  "swelled  head"  only 
by  comparing  liimsclf  zuith  himself. 

Is  not  that  the  trouble?  The  process  is  usually 
something  like  this :  a  man  goes  to  work  earnestly  and 
intelligently,  and  as  a  consequence  his  work  attracts 
attention.  z-Vny  man  who  works  this  way  is  bound  to 
make  an  impression.  In  course  of  time  this  man  is 
advanced,  and  the  recognition  thus  accorded  has  the 
elfect  of  making  him  still  more  earnest  and  intel- 
ligent, and  therefore  more  useful  and  desirable.     So 


SWELLED    HEAD      IN    BUSINESS 

another  advancement  inevitably  comes ;  and  perhaps 
another,  and  another. 

Then  one  day,  the  man  stops  to  consider  what  has 
befallen  him  and  the  idea  creeps  into  his  mind  that  he 
must  be  quite  a  fellow.  Look  what  he  was  then,  and 
look  what  he  is  no7v!  Comparing  himself  with  him- 
self, you  sec.  It  is  ihc  first  whisper  of  the  tempting 
serpent. 

The  man  receives  his  last  advancement — and  us- 
ually it  is  his  last — with  the  feeling  that  at  length  he 
has  arrived.  Me  has  ceased  to  regard  every  new 
step  as  a  new  challenge  to  his  ability ;  he  has  come  to 
regard  it  as  a  decoration  pinned  on  him  for  what  he 
has  done  some  time  in  the  past.  As  a  result,  he  sits 
down  to  enjoy  his  new  place  and  his  new  title — and  his 
degeneration  begins  right  there.  lie  has  caught 
"swelled  head"  and  the  treatment  needed  to  cure  that 
is  often  very  drastic  and  severe. 

Where  did  the  disease  begin?  In  the  man's 
thought  that  advancements  are  decorations  instead  of 
new  challenges.  Nobody  has  "arrived"  until  he  has 
filled  his  post  and  is  leaving  it — only  then  can  a  judg- 
ment be  rendered  on  his  work. 

Can  you  imagine  a  newly  elected  President  of  the 
United  .States  entering  the  White  House  with  a  smug 
smile  and  saying  to  himself,  "Well,  at  last  I  have  at- 
tained success — 1  have  arrived — I  have  become  Presi- 
dent"— can  you  imagine  that?  Oh,  no,  for  just  at 
that  moment  there  would  come  thundering  through  the 
corridors  of  his  soul  the  cutting  challenge — "What 
kind  of  a  President?"  Ah! — that  is  a  (|uestion  to  be 
answered  after  four  or  eight  years  of  service. 

The  ]*resi(lent  does  not  arrive  until  he  leaves;  it 
is  then  his  record  is  made;  it  is  then  his  measure  is 
recorded  on  history's  page.  The  exalted  position  is 
sometimes  only  a  loftier  stage  upon  which  to  enact  a 
tragedy  of  failure. 

It  is  true  everywhere.  If  \-ou  are  promoted,  it  is 
only  another  burden,  another  deniaiid  laid  on  you, 
with  the  (|iU'stions:  "L"an  you  carr\  that?  Can  )'0U 
fulfill  that?"  The  reward  for  good  work  done  is 
alwavs  more   work.      .Xot   decorations,  nor  titles,  nor 


FORD    IDEALS 

"soft  snaps" ;  these  are  the  snares  which  have  wrecked 
many  a  career. 

It  is  better  to  remain  a  good  bookkeeper  and  to 
be  known  as  such,  than  to  be  promoted  because  you 
are  a  good  bookkeeper  and  think  that  you  can  dis- 
pense with  the  quahties  that  made  you  a  good  book- 
keeper. Unless  you  take  those  qualities  with  you, 
enlarged  and  intensified,  you  are  only  ascending  the 
scale  to  a  more  spectacular  failure.  Promotion  that 
is  not  regarded  as  a  challenge  to  greater  and  better 
performance  may  easily  become  a  snare. 

W'e  want  to  write  the  word  "success"  too  soon.  It 
should  be  kept  for  the  epitaph.  Any  man  who  thinks 
he  is  a  success,  has  come  to  his  terminal.  He  is  about 
ready  to  get  off.  He  is  running  under  the  momentum 
of  past  steam.  He  is  coming  down  with  a  form  of 
"swelled  head." 

One  fact  about  this  disease  should  be  noted :  it 
does  not  always  take  an  otTensive  form.  It  does  not 
always  show  itself  in  bumptiousness.  A  man  may  be 
a  victim  of  it  and  yet  never  suspect  it.  When  a  man 
settles  back  as  if  he  had  done  all  he  ought  to  do,  when 
he  begins  to  have  the  deliciously  drowsy  feeling  that, 
after  all.  he  has  done  pretty  well — it  is  time  to  be  on 
guard.  The  disease  is  not  unpleasant  to  the  victim  and 
therein  lies  its  danger.  He  should  distrust  such 
thoughts  and  go  on  a  hunt  for  something  hard  and 
difficult  and  "impossible"  to  do — something  that  will 
bring  back  a  normal   sense  of  proportion. 


Regarding  Charity,  Welfare 
Work  and  Other  Matters 


THE  world  doesn't  owe  anybody  a  living,  but  ev- 
erybody owes  it  to  the  world  that  he  get  a  living 
and  in  getting  it  leave  a  margin  of  service  for  the 
others.  Nothing  is  more  productive  of  a  sour  spirit 
than  the  mistaken  belief  that  we  are  here  to  be  waited 
on,  and  nothing  is  more  productive  of  breadth  and 
prosperity  of  life  than  the  belief  that  we  are  here  to 
do  something  beyond  that  which  necessity  compels  us 
to  do  for  ourselves. 

It  is  hard  to  get  such  an  idea  clearly  accepted  to- 
day, because  there  are  so  many  words  that  have  lost 
their  meaning  through  overuse.  It  is  next  to  im- 
possible to  talk  about  "service"  in  these  days  without 
having  the  very  word  lose  itself  in  a  tangle  of  pre- 
conceived ideas — ideas  which  were  born  in  the  wishy- 
washy  period  of  romantic  idealism  out  of  which  we 
are  happily  passing. 

It  is  hard  for  another  reason,  namely  that  this 
whole  period  of  seiuimental  idealism  to  which  we  have 
just  referred  had  the  effect  of  giving  a  namby-pami)y 
surfacing  to  any  number  of  people.  The  idea  went 
abroad  that  "service"  was  something  that  we  should 
expect  to  be  done  for  us.  Untold  numbers  of  people 
became  the  recipients  of  the  well-meant  but  over-done 
"social  service"  of  others.  Whole  sections  of  our 
po])ulation  were  coddled  into  the  habit  of  expecting 
something,  as  children  do.  There  grew  up  a  regular 
profession  of  doing  things  for  people,  which  gave  an 
outlet  for  a  laudable  desire  lor  service,  but  which 
contributed  nothing  \vhate\er  to  the  self-reliance  of 
the  i)eople  nor  to  the  correction  of  llie  conditions  out 
of  which  the  supi)ose(l  need  for  sucli  service  grew. 

Worse  than  this  encouragement  of  cliildisli  ex- 
pectancy, instead  of  training  for  self-reliance  and  self- 
sut"licienc\-.  was  tin-  creation  of  a  feelin"'  of  resentment 


FORD    IDEALS 


which  nearly  always  overtakes  the  objects  of  charity. 

People  often  complain  of  the  "ingratitude"  of 
those  whom  they  h^lp.  Nothing  is  more  natural.  In 
the  tirst  place,  precious  little  of  our  so-called  charity 
is  ever  real  charity,  offered  out  of  a  heart  full  of 
interest  and  sympathy.  In  the  second  place,  no  per- 
son ever  relishes  being  in  a  position  where  he  is  forced 
to  take  favors  from  anyone. 

This  situation  creates  a  strained  relation:  the 
recipient  of  another's  bounty  feels  that  he  has  been 
belittled  in  the  taking  of  it,  and  it  is  just  a  question 
whether  the  giver  should  not  also  feel  that  he  has  been 
belittled  in  the  giving  of  it.  Service  is  objected  to  by 
no  one,  appreciated  by  all ;  but  who  would  designate 
charity  as  "service"? 

Charity  never  led  to  a  settled  state  of  affairs.  The 
charitable  system  that  does  not  aim  to  make  itself 
unnecessary  is  not  performing  service.  It  is  simply 
making  a  job  for  itself  and  is  an  added  item  to  the 
record  of  non-production. 

Factory  welfare  work  that  does  not  educate  the 
factory  personnel  to  a  point  beyond  the  need  of 
chaperonage,  is  not  doing  its  duty.  The  work  of 
every  welfare  worker  is  similar  to  that  of  the  physi- 
cian, namely,  to  perform  the  work  so  well  that  it  will 
soon  be  unnecessary.  Welfare  work  is  not  a  crutch 
for  a  permanent  injury,  it  is  an  educational  program 
which  justifies  itself  only  by  placing  its  beneficiaries 
beyond  need  of  it.  Whatever  is  permanently  necessary 
is  just  plain  decency  and  justice  and  should  not  be 
decked  out  with  names  which  suggest  that  somebody 
deserves  credit  for  being  just  a  little  bit  more  human 
than  he  was  expected  to  be. 

It  may  sometimes  seem  that  an  advance  step  is 
charity,  but  it  need  not  be  stigmatized  by  that  word — 
it  would  better  be  called  vision.  A  man  sees  the 
proper  thing  to  do  for  those  who  have  not  the  facilities 
as  yet  to  do  it  for  themselves,  and  he  does  it — it  only 
means  that  he  uses  the  power  at  his  command  to  bring 
in  the  New  Era  in  that  j^articular  matter.  The  New 
Era  has  been  "inching  along"  for  some  time  in  this 
manner. 

This  was  really  the  way  in  which  "human  rights" 

46 


REGARDING  CHARITY,  WELFARE  WORK  AND  OTHER  MATTERS 

came  in.  They  first  began  as  "privilege."  Those  who 
could  get  "privileges"  got  them.  But  the  fact  that 
"privileges"  could  be  had  by  one  group  led  the  way 
to  their  being  had  by  all  groups.  Every  inalienable 
right  we  now  possess  was  once  a  "class  privilege."  We 
scold  a  great  deal  about  "privilege"  these  days,  and  it 
is  right  to  do  so,  for  what  we  nowadays  call  "priv- 
ilege" is  mostly  daylight  robbery ;  but  at  the  same  time 
it  is  well  to  remember  that  there  are  instances  where 
the  privilege  of  the  few  is  really  a  prophecy  of  the 
coming,  rights  of  the  many. 

Humanitarianism  is  splendid  when  it  is  not  pro- 
fessionalized. But  it  is  not  a  good  word.  Suppose 
there  comes  a  time  wlien  everyone  will  be  self-suf- 
ficient, so  far  as  the  material  assistance  we  can  render 
each  other  is  concerned,  where  then  will  be  the  field 
for  "humanitarianism"?  That  is,  the  kind  of  human- 
itarianism that  really  gives  you  the  feeling  of  vet- 
erinarianism. 

There  is  only  human  helpfulness,  and  directly  that 
is  systematized,  organized,  commercialized  and  pro- 
fessionalized, the  heart  of  it  is  extinguished,  and  it 
becomes  a  cold  and  clammy  thing. 

Human  helpfulness  which  is  never  card  catalogued 
nor  advertised  is  the  most  helpful  agency  in  the  world 
today.  There  are  more  orphan  children  being  cared 
for  in  the  private  homes  of  people  who  love  them,  than 
in  the  institutions.  There  are  more  old  people  being 
sheltered  among  friends,  without  money  and  without 
price,  and  with  no  thought  of  either,  than  you  can 
find  in  the  Old  People's  Homes.  There  is  more  aid 
by  loans  and  other  assistance  between  family  and  fam- 
ily than  all  the  loan  societies  or  banks  are  doing.  That 
is,  human  society  on  a  humane  basis,  looks  out  for 
itself.  It  is  a  grave  (juestion  how  far  we  ought  to 
countenance  the  commercialization  of  this  instinct. 
We  certainly  ought  to  subject  it  to  the  severest 
scrutiny  to  iind,  if  possible,  by  what  interests  and  for 
what  interests  it  is  being  commercialized. 

Above  all,  however,  we  should  devote  ourselves  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  okl-fashione*!  virtue  of  self- 
reliance  in  our  people.  .Vniericans  were  formerlv 
self-reliant;  Americans  in  blood  and  spirit  doubtless 

47 


FORD    IDEALS 

form  the  self-reliant  part  of  our  population  now.  But 
we  have  received  large  aclniixtvn-es  from  other  coun- 
tries where  an  obsequious  attitude  is  counted  neces- 
sary before  one  can  even  receive  one's  rights. 

That  was  carried  to  America  by  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  people  to  have  its  effect,  especially  on  the  of- 
ficers of  municipal  government.  Foreigners  thought 
an  alderman  was  a  great  personage  and  a  policeman  a 
power  to  be  placated.  It  wasn't  good  for  the  alder- 
man or  the  policeman  to  be  thus  exalted.  Good  old- 
fashioned  American  self-reliance  is  a  much  better 
attitude  to  adopt  before  all  political  powers.  We  need 
more  of  it  in  the  country  right  now. 

One  of  the  common  sayings  which  came  out  of 
the  dawn  of  common  sense  on  this  whole  question  was 
this:  "Help  a  man  to  help  himself."  But  how  have 
we  been  doing  it  ?  We  have  been  starting  too  far  this 
side  of  the  root  of  the  matter.  The  way  to  help  a 
man  to  help  himself  is  to  get  the  idea  firmly  rooted 
in  his  understanding  that  his  help  is  in  himself.  That 
is  the  entire  basis  of  our  much  boasted  self-govern- 
ment. Only  a  self-reliant  people  can  be  self-govern- 
ing, and  if  we  have  foimd  the  government  slipping 
away  from  ourselves,  we  may  take  it  as  a  sign  that 
we  are  losing  our  national  virtue  of  self-reliance.  There 
is  something  tragically  comic  in  lazily  relying  on  a 
government  that  relies  on  us.  And  if  a  government 
ceases  to  rely  on  the  people,  and  the  people  cease  to 
rely  on  themselves,  that  is  the  beginning  of  dissolu- 
tion. We  do  not,  however,  think  of  dissolution  for 
this  nation  or  government ;  it  is  made  of  the  prin- 
ciples that  forever  endure. 

Let  every  American  become  self-protective  from 
coddling.  Americans  ought  to  resent  coddling  like  a 
drug.  Stand  up  and  stand  out ;  let  weaklings  take 
charity ;  we  will  have  Rights  because  we  will  sim])ly 
go  to  work  and  make  them ;  create  them,  and  then 
enjoy  them. 


Where  High  Wages  Begin 


HIGH  wages  sounds  mighty  good.  That  is,  to 
most  people.  It  is  true  tliat  a  few  men  seem  to 
think  that  high  wages  will  ruin  husiness.  But  the 
majority  of  people  know  better  than  that.  The  grocer, 
the  clothier,  the  furnitin^e  maker,  the  boot  and  shoe 
man,  the  banker — all  know  better. 

There  are  short-sighted  men  who  cannot  see  that 
Business  is  a  bigger  thing  than  any  one  man's  in- 
terests. Business  is  a  process  of  give  and  take,  live 
and  let  live.  It  is  co-operation  between  many  forces 
and  interests. 

Whenever  you  find  a  man  who  believes  that  Busi- 
ness is  a  river  whose  beneficial  flow  ought  to  stop 
as  soon  as  it  reaches  him.  and  go  no  farther  to  re- 
fresh and  enrich  other  men's  helds,  you  find  a  man 
who  thinks  he  can  keep  Business  alive  by  stopping 
its  circulation. 

There  are  some  men  who,  if  they  got  all  they 
wanted,  wotild  get  everything,  and  so  destroy  the  very 
thing  they  seek.     This  is  lack  of  vision. 

What  do  we  mean  by  high  wages,  anyway  ? 

We  mean  a  higher  wage  than  was  paid  ten  months 
or  ten  years  ago.  We  do  not  mean  a  higher  wage 
than  ought  to  be  paid.  Our  high  wages  of  today  ma\' 
be  low  wages  ten  years  from  now. 

If  it  is  right  for  the  manager  of  a  business  to  try 
to  make  it  pay  larger  dividends,  it  is  just  as  right  that 
he  should  try  to  make  it  pa\'  higher  wages.  b\)r  wages 
are  the  chief  dividend — on  the  money  side  at  least — 
and  more  people  are  dependent  on  them. 

But  where  the  commonest  mistake  is  made  is  here  : 
We  sometimes  imagine  that  it  is  the  manager  of  the 
business  who  pays  the  high  wages.  (  )f  course,  if  he 
can  and  will  not,  then  the  blame  is  his.  But  if  he  can. 
it  is  not  himself  alonr  that  makes  il  possible. 

When  you  trace  il  all  down  to  its  source,  it  is  realK' 
the  worknu'ii   wlio  earn  the  \\a"es.      TluMr  labor  is  iIk- 


FORD    IDEALS 


productive  factor.  It  is  not  the  only  productive  fac- 
tor, of  course,  for  poor  management  can  waste  labor 
just  as  it  can  waste  material  and  make  it  unproductive. 

But  in  a  partnership  of  good  management  and  good 
labor,  it  is  the  workman  who  makes  good  wages  pos- 
sible. He  invests  his  energy  and  skill,  and  if  he 
makes  an  honest,  whole-hearted  investment,  good 
wages  ought  to  be  his  reward.  Not  only  has  he  earned 
them,  but  he  has  had  a  big  part  in  creating  them. 

The  employer  who,  in  fairness,  is  paying  good 
wages  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  applauded  as  an  angel. 
It  is  not  all  his  doing.  If  his  men  did  not  do  their 
part  in  making  the  business  productive  and  profitable, 
he  would  not  have  the  big  wage  to  pay.  So  that  the 
credit  is  not  all  his.  He  is  only  sharing  justly,  or 
nearly  so,  with  the  men  who  were  his  active  partners 
in  the  business. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  the  employer  showing  his 
generosity,  or  playing  My  Lord  Bountifvil,  or  any- 
thing like  that.  It  is  simply  the  square  deal.  And 
it  is  the  only  practical  way  of  keeping  a  business  pro- 
ductive and  profitable. 

A  business  whose  benefits  come  to  a  halt  in  the 
company's  office  is  not  a  healthy  business.  The  bene- 
fit has  got  to  circulate  so  that  every  man  who  had  a 
])art  in  creating  and  running  it  has  also  a  part  in  en- 
joying it.     It  is  simple   fairness. 

Paying  good  wages  is  not  charity  at  all- — it  is  the 
best    kind    of    business. 

The  kind  of  workman  who  gives  the  business  the 
best  that  is  in  him  is  the  best  kind  of  workman  a 
business  can  have.  But  he  cannot  be  expected  to  do 
this  indefinitely  without  proper  recognition. 

Good  wages  help  keep  the  good  workmen  a  good 
workman  for  the  sake  of  the  business. 

The  man  who  comes  to  the  day's  job  feeling  that 
no  matter  how  much  he  may  give,  it  will  not  yield 
him  enough  of  a  return  to  keep  him  beyond  the  margin 
of  want,  is  not  in  shape  to  do  his  day's  work.  He 
is  anxious  and  worried  and  it  all  reacts  to  the  detri- 
ment of  his  work. 

But  if  a  man  feels  that  his  day's  work  is  not  only 
supplying  his   basic   need,   but   is   also   giving  him   a 


WHERE    HIGH    WAGES    BEGIN 


margin  of  comfort,  and  enabling  him  to  give  his  boys 
and  girls  their  opportunity  and  his  wife  some  pleasure 
in  life,  then  his  job  looks  good  to  him  and  he  is  free 
to  give  it  his  very  best. 

This  is  a  good  thing  for  him  and  a  good  thing  for 
the  business.  The  man  who  does  not  get  a  certain 
satisfaction  out  of  his  day's  work  is  losing  the  best 
part  of  his  pay. 

Do  you  know,  the  day's  work  is  a  great  thing— a 
very  great  thing!  It  is  at  the  very  foundation  of  our 
economic  place  in  the  world ;  it  is  the  basis  of  our 
self-respect;  it  is  the  only  way  to  reach  out  and  touch 
the  whole  world  of  activity. 

All  of  us  are  workingmen  these  days.  If  we  are 
not,  we  are  parasites.  No  amount  of  money  excuses 
any  man  from  working.  He  is  either  producer  or 
parasite — take  your  choice. 

All  of  us  don't  do  the  same  things,  our  jobs  are 
different.  But  all  of  us  are  working  for  the  same  end, 
and  that  end  is  bigger  than  any  of  us. 

The  employer  who  is  seriously  trying  to  do  his 
duty  in  the  world  must  be  a  hard  worker.  It  is  use- 
less for  him  to  say,  'T  have  so  many  thousand  men 
working  for  me."  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  so 
many  thousand  men  have  him  working  for  them — 
and  the  better  they  work  the  busier  they -keep  him  dis- 
posing of  their  products. 

\\  ages  and  salaries  are  in  fixed  amounts,  and  this 
must  be  so  in  order  to  have  a  basis  to  figure  on.  But 
w  here  the  profits  exceed  these  there  ought  to  be  profit- 
sharing.  Wages  and  salaries  are  a  sort  of  fixed  profit- 
sharing,  but  it  often  happens  tliat  when  the  business 
of  the  year  is  closed  u])  it  is  discovered  that  more 
can  be  done,  and  then  more  ought  to  be  done.  Where 
we  are  all  in  the  business  working  together,  we  all 
ought  to  have  some  share  in  the  profits,  either  a  good 
wagf  or  salary,  or  added  conn)ensation. 

The  business  man's  ambition  ought  to  be  to  pay 
•the  best  wages  tlu;  business  can  carrv,  and  the  work- 
man's ambition  should  be  to  respond  to  make  the  best 
wages  I'jossible. 

.\  business  man  sometimes  does  not  know  just 
how  to  say  this.    There  are  men  in  all  shops  who  seem 


FORD    IDEALS 


to  believe  that,  when  they  are  urged  to  do  their  best, 
it  is  for  their  employer's  benefit  and  not  their  own. 
It  is  a  pity  that  such  a  feeling  should  exist.  But  per- 
haps there  have  been  enough  abuses  in  the  past  to 
justify  it  in  many  instances. 

If  an  employer  urges  men  to  do  their  best,  and 
the  men  learn  after  a  while  that  their  best  does  not 
mean  any  reward  for  them,  then  they  simply  go  back 
into  the  rut  and  all  the  urging  is  wasted. 

But  if  men  follow  the  urging  and  do  their  best, 
and  then  see  the  fruits  of  it  in  their  pay  envelope,  it 
is  proof  to  them  that  they  are  an  essential  part  of  that 
business,  and  that  its  success  largely  depends  on  them. 
They  feel  also  that  there  is  justice  in  that  business 
and  that  their  efforts  will  not  be  ignored. 

It  ought  to  be  clear,  however,  that  the  higher  wage 
begins  down  in  the  shop.  If  it  is  not  created  there  it 
cannot  get  into  the  pay  envelopes.  It  must  begin  there, 
and  it  ought  to  keep  on  circulating  until  a  just  pro- 
portion of  it  gets  back  there,  and  when  profit-sharing 
time  comes  the  men  who  helped  to  make  the  profits 
should  not  be  forgotten. 

So  when  the  workman  is  lu'ged  to  do  his  best,  it 
ought  not  to  be  a  game  that  is  playing  on  him.  His 
best  ought  to  mean  the  best  for  him  as  well  as  for  the 
business.  And  unless  it  does  mean  this  his  best  is 
going  to  be  hard  to  get. 

It  is  a  sense  of  "fellowship  in  work  that  we  need. 
And  fair  dealing  will  give  it  to  us.  Why  do  we  have 
these  classes  of  "capital"  and  "labor"  set  apart  as 
enemies?  Simply  because  fair  dealing  has  not  been 
the  rule.  \Miat  is  "capital"  without  "labor"?  And 
what  is  "labor"  but  "capital"?  And  what  earthly  use 
is  "capital"  unless  it  labors  and  produces  the  things 
which  life  requires? 

Wc  must  get  together  on  tliese  matters,  and  the 
only  way  we  can  get  together  is  to  begin  with  fair 
dealing. 

One  ounce  of  fair  dealing  is  worth  a  ton  of  fair 
speeches. 

Every  business  that  employs  more  than  one  man 
is  a  ])artnership.  This  is  so  whether  the  man  at  the 
head  of  the  business  acknowledges  it  or  not. 


WHKRK     HKMI     WAGK.S     BtXilX 


Suppose  a  man  invents  an  article  which  is  capable 
of  wide  use  by  the  })eople.  With  his  own  two  hands 
he  cannot  make  enouj,di  of  them  to  satisfy  the  demand. 
He  might  work  hard  all  his  life  and  make  only  a  few. 

S,o  he  gets  other  men  to  give  their  labor  that  his 
creation  may  gain  currency  in  the  world.  It  is  still 
his  idea,  but  they  help  him  to  spread  it.  Without  his 
idea  there  would  not  be  so  many  jobs  in  the  world. 
Without  their  labor  there  would  not  be  so  many 
articles  of  commerce. 

You  see,  the  man  at  the  head  can  no  longer  say 
MY  business,  but  all  of  them  together  can  say  OUR 
business,  and  when  this  is  the  spirit,  and  it  is  prac- 
ticed all  the  way  through,  the  very  best  kind  of  part- 
nership exists. 

There  is  too  nuich  of  the  "my"  and  too  little  of 
"our,"  both  in  the  shops  and  the  head  office.  The 
workman  has  got  to  assume  that  it  is  "our"  business. 
It  is  the  only  way  he  can  feel  that  it  is  "his"  busi- 
ness, too. 

The  source  of  every  j)roductive  result  is  the  day's 
work.  That  is  the  seed  from  which  every  fruitful 
crop  springs.  The  farmer  gets  no  more  out  of  the 
ground  than  he  puts  into  it  by  his  labor.  And  it  is 
what  the  worker  puts  into  the  business  that  makes 
it  pay. 

What  would  any  of  vis  be  without  work?  Who  is 
so  pitiable  as  the  man  without  an  occupation  that 
contributes  something  to  the  life  of  the  race? 

.And  just  as  i)itiable  is  the  man  who  drags  him- 
self through  the  da\'s  work  as  if  he  were  a  slave, 
doing  as  little  us  possible,  and  that  little  badly. 

Me  is  a  brake  on  the  wheels  of  industry.  He  is 
lowering  its  wage-paying  power.  He  is  like  a  faulty 
machine  that  costs  more  than  it  ]:)roduces.  Multiply 
him  by  a  sufficient  number  and  the  business  is  ruined 
— it  loses  its  power  to  support  anybody  connected 
with  it. 

There  will  never  be  a  s\steni  invented  which  will 
do  awav  with  the  necessitv  of  work.  .Nature  has  seen 
to  that.  Idle  hands  and  minds  were  never  intended 
\ov  any  one  ot  us.  \\  ork  is  cnu'  sanit\".  oiu"  self-re- 
si)ect,  our  salvatif^n.     So  far  from  being  a  curse,  work 


FORD    IDEALS 


is  the  greatest  blessing.  It  is  only  when  it  is  mixed 
with  indolence  or  injustice  that  it  becomes  a  curse. 

Take  it  from  a  man  who  has  worked  from  his 
earliest  years,  and  who  is  a  workingman  now,  and 
proud  to  be  one,  that  no  one  can  get  any  more  out 
of  his  job  than  he  puts  into  it. 

Not  because  any  man  says  so,  but  because  it  is  the 
real  nature  of  things. 


54 


The  Army  Is  Never  ''Laid  Off" 


WE  HEAR  a  great  deal  these  days  about  getting 
back  to  a  peace  basis.  Some  countries  seem  to 
be  finding  it  a  hard  thing  to  do.  But  this  is  probably 
because  they  hesitate  to  face  the  other  charges  that 
must  come  with  the  new  peace. 

Our  own  problem  is  not  simple,  but  it  is  not  im- 
possible. We  went  on  a  war  footing  in  double-quick 
time.  We  broke  all  records,  even  the  records  of  na- 
tions which  were  more  accustomed  to  the  war-thought 
than  we  w'ere. 

Now  we  ought  to  get  back  as  quickly  as  we  made 
the  first  change.  We  ought  not  to  wait  to  be  pushed 
back  by  the  pressure  of  business — we  ought  to  go 
back  under  our  own  will. 

That  seems  to  be  the  point  where  some  plans 
failed ;  it  was  expected  that  we  would  be  pushed  back 
into  the  old  channels  by  a  strong  rush  of  business. 

The  rush  has  not  come.  A  sort  of  "between  acts" 
period  is  upon  us.  The  world  is  readjusting  its  mind 
after  nearly  five  years  of  strange  experience.  The 
new  beginning  has  not  been  as  brisk  in  certain  lines 
as  some  people  expected. 

But  it  is  coming.  'Inhere  can  be  no  doubt  of  ihut. 
The  war  is  over  in  a  way.  and  still  it  is  not  over.  The 
iron  hand  is  still  on  the  world,  stopping  up  many  av- 
enues of  action.  So  that  we  have  not  really  arrived 
at  the  "after  the  war"  period  as  yet.  Peace  has  not 
been  signed.  Blockades  have  not  been  renioved.  The 
nations  have  not  settled  down  to  the  work  of  re- 
building. When  they  do,  you  will  see  things  begin 
to  move  in  a  Inu'rv. 

America  is  in  good  condition  to  begin.  We  were 
a  peace  ])e()])le  clean  through.  Our  industries  were 
organized  for  ])eace.  I'\)r  that  reason  it  was  a  bigger 
job  lor  us  than  for  others  to  go  on  a  war  footing. 
We  had  ever\tliing  to  get  ready  and  to  make.  .And 
we  tlid  it  ver}-  well,  considering  the  time  we  had.  \\\' 

55 


FORD    IDEALS 


did  it  very  well  indeed.  The  Kaiser  would  agree 
with  that. 

This  will  make  it  easier  for  us  to  go  back  where 
we  were.  Our  peace  machinery  is  all  intact.  It  only 
needs  to  be  set  up  and  started.  In  many  places  it  was 
not  even  taken  down,  but  was  set  at  once  doing  war 
work.     We  are  ready   for  business. 

But  suppose  business  isn't  here.  Are  we  to  sit 
down  and  wait?     Is  there  nothing  for  us  to  do? 

It  is  not  the  American  way  to  sit  down  and  wait. 
If  not  enough  is  doing,  we  must  start  something. 

When  a  man  has  not  work  enovigh  for  the  mo- 
ment to  keep  his  circulation  up,  what  does  he  do? 
He  begins  to  exercise  for  the  sake  of  stimulating  his 
circulation.  He  runs ;  he  swings  his  arm.  He  starts 
doing  something  in  order  that  he  may  not  stagnate. 

Now.  business  is  simply  circulation.  Usually  there 
is  enough  of  it  to  keep  us  going.  That  is,  we  have 
enough  regular  business  to  keep  us  warm.  But  if 
it  slows  up,  the  sensible  thing  is  to  refuse  to  slow  up 
with  it.  If  we  cannot  do  a  certain  thing  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  do,  we  must  do  something  else. 

For  the  cost  of  a  month  of  war  we  could  make 
such  public  improvements  in  this  land  as  would  be 
worth  most  of  the  territory  invojved  in  the  war.  We 
could  make  a  new  Eden  of  the  Mississippi  \'alley, 
turning  it  into  the  great  garden  and  powerhouse  of 
the  country.  We  could  build  the  canals  and  establish 
the  waterpower  we  have  been  talking  about  and  have 
never  seen  our  way  clear  to  do.  \\'e  could  develop  a 
greater  agricultural  area  and  make  the  produce  of 
former  years  look  like  a  handful. 

There  are  any  number  of  things  waiting  to  be 
done  which  will  bring  fabulous  benefits  to  our  coun- 
try if  we  would  only  turn  out  to  do  them.  And  they 
are  the  very  things  which  nnist  be  done  if  American 
business  is  not  to  burst  its  already  tight  bounds. 

Somebody  may  ask  where  the  money  would  come 
from,  l^hat  is  easiest  of  all.  If  it  were  a  shortage  of 
men  or  food  tliat  confronted  us.  it  would  be  serious; 
but  money  is  the  cheapest  thing  there  is. 

All  the  money  we  spent  on  the  war  is  here  now. 
It  is  only  the  material  tliat  is  gone.     The  war  is  paid 

56 


THE    ARMY    IS    NEVER       LAID    OFF 

for,  SO  far  as  money  for  its  support  is  concerned. 
Every  man  who  contributed  a  bushel  of  grain,  a  ton 
of  material,  or  a  day  of  labor  to  that  great  enterprise 
has  been  paid.  All  the  borrowing  we  did,  we  borrowed 
from  ourselves,  and  we  spent  it  among  ourselves.  All 
the  money  we  lent,  or  the  larger  part  of  it,  was  spent 
here  among  us.  \\'hen  the  borrowed  money  is  paid 
back,  it  will  be  paid  to  the  citizens  who  lent  it.  It 
will  still  be  here. 

There  never  was  such  an  outpouring  of  money  as 
during  the  war.  Everybody  had  money  to  lend  to 
the  Government,  and  everybody  got  part  of  the  bene- 
fit of  the  money  he  lent.  It  made  big  things  possible. 
It  made  large  central  management  possible.  It  kept 
up  the  circulation  at  a  critical  time. 

Now,  if  it  were  necessary,  why  could  not  such  a 
collective  enterprise  be  undertaken  for  the  purposes 
of  peace?  The  Government  is  only  ourselves.  It  is 
our  central  office.  When  the  Government  undertakes 
anything  it  is  really  ourselves  doing  it.  whether  it  be 
fighting  a  war  or  l)uilding  a  canal. 

Lack  of  emi)loyment  ought  to  be  as  rare  in  the 
United  States  as  snow  is  in  the  tropics.  And  so  it 
would  be  if  we  thought  more  of  the  collective  welfare 
and  less  of  individual  ])rofit. 

There  is  no  denying  that  we  gain  or  lose  together. 
When  everybod}-  is  busy,  evcr\thing  moves,  and  we 
all  j^rofit  thereby. 

And  what  makes  everybody  busy?  Well,  the  first 
motive  power  is  the  necessitv  of  three  meals  a  dav. 
If  everyone  stopped  eating,  very  little  business  would 
be  done.  We  must  ivvd  oursel\-es,  and  tlie  work  of 
doing  that  breeds  a  lot  of  related  work,  and  so  it 
goes  on.  broadening  iiuo  what  we  know  as  modern 
business. 

When  business  slows  up.  is  it  a  sign  that  the  pe()i)le 
have  slowed  up  on  tood?  Xo.  I'sualK'  it  is  a  sign 
that  those  who  handle  the  moni'\  art'  afraid  to  set 
things  going.  Willi  no  ])rt'ssure  on  their  gainful 
natm"e  from  without,  they  refuse  to  st.arl  a  motive 
])ower  within. 

The  basis  of  l)n>int'ss  is  alwa\s  with  us.  in  the 
primary   needs   of    life.      The    nu'diiini    of    Inisiness    is 


FORD    IDEALS 


always  with  us  in  the  form  of  money.  It  is  only  a 
question  of  starting  the  thing  going. 

We  don't  have  to  wait  for  China  or  Germany  to 
give  us  the  sign  to  get  busy ;  we  can  get  busy  right 
here  among  ourselves,  on  our  own  concerns.  . 

This  brings  it  straight  down  to  the  individual  who 
has  capital,  and  w^ho  hangs  on  to  it  because  he  can- 
not see  more  of  it  rolling  in.  He  ought  to  start  some- 
thing. Every  man  of  money  has  in  his  money  the 
surplus  push  which  will  start  the  wheels  turning  again. 

The  time  to  push  is  when  the  momentum  from 
without  has  ceased. 

Now  is  the  time  for  the  man  of  the  future  to  in- 
vest in  the  future.  If  he  has  any  building  to  do,  let 
him  do  it  now.  If  he  has  a  stock  to  create,  let  him 
make  it  now. 

Nobody  is  taking  any  chances  when  he  gets  busy 
meeting  the  future  beforehand. 

This  little  breathing  spell  is  a  good  thing  to  take 
advantage  of.  Now  is  the  time  to  spend  money  and 
prepare  for  tomorrow's  business,  because  it  is  going 
to  come  rolling  in  fast. 

And  then  there  is  the  human  side  of  it.  Let  us 
take  a  lesson  from  the  Government  in  this.  The  Gov- 
ernment has  a  great  army  to  provide  for.  The  busi- 
ness of  that  army  is  to  fight.  But  suppose  there  comes 
a  lull  of  months,  when  there  is  no  fighting  to  do.  Dur- 
ing this  war  it  has  happened,  as  it  sometimes  does  in 
industry,  that  there  is  nothing  for  an  army  to  do  in 
the  task  it  was  organized   for. 

We  have  seen  whole  winters  pass  with  nothing 
special  for  the  armies  to  do. 

Did  the  Government  lay  the  men  off  and  stop 
their  pay,  saying,  "Come  back  when  the  fighting  opens 
up  again  and  we'll  put  you  on  the  payroll"  ? 

No.  The  Government  felt  itself  under  obligation 
to  keep  that  army  intact  and  in  good  trim. 

Where  is  the  difference  between  our  fighting 
armies  and  the  armies  of  peace — our  great  industrial 
army  ? 

There  are  about  twenty  millions  of  men  engaged  in 
the  industrial  maintenance  of  the  United  States.  They 
arc  our  great  standing  army  of  production.  They  are 
necessary  to  our  existence  as  a  self-supporting  people. 

58 


THE  ARMY  IS    NEVER     LAID  OFF 

No  calamity  could  overtake  the  country  that  would 
equal  the  removal  of  this  great  force  from  agri- 
culture, manufacturing  and  transportation. 

Yet  what  is  done  with  these  men  in  slack  times? 
They  are  turned  out  at  their  own  charges,  and  ex- 
pected to  he  on  hand  when  they  are  needed  again. 

It  isn't  good  management.  It  isn't  the  kind  of 
treatment  to  which  loyalty  responds.  It  hreaks  us  up 
into  separate  interests,  when  really  we  are  but  one 
interest  and  ought  to  be  united  for  the  general  wel- 
fare. 

This  is  one  point  where  we  are  wrong. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  place  the  blame,  but  it  is  hard 
to  prove  the  blame.  If  any  one  man  could  remedy 
it,  that  man  could  be  blamed  for  not  doing  so.  But 
it  is  too  big  for  any  man  or  group  of  men  to  cure  by 
their  own  efforts,  and  therefore  it  is  too  big  for  them 
to  bear  the  blame  for  it. 

It  is  something  we  nuist  all  try  to  do  together, 
and  do  on  a  system.  We  must  so  adjust  matters  that 
the  slack  in  employment  will  be  automatically  taken 
up.  I^ullness  in  one  line  nuisl  be  offset  by  brisk  ef- 
fort in  another. 

If  we  set  about  it  intelligently  we  could  find  profit- 
able productive  work  for  twice  the  number  of  our 
present  industrial  army.  America  teems  with  work 
waiting  to  be  done.  America  will  never  be  oversup- 
plied  with  labor  if  we  develop  our  resources  as  we 
ought.  It  is  the  duty  of  men  of  vision,  men  of  re- 
source to  lay  out  the  new  channels  for  the  industry 
of  new  millions  of  men.  There  is  enough  to  be  done 
in  America  to  engage  our  largest  man-power  to  the 
farthest  generation. 

Individually,  it  is  our  duty  to  endeavor  as  far  as 
we  possibly  can  to  regard  our  own  men  as  our  own 
regiments  in  the  struggle  for  industrial  civilization, 
and  to  feel  a  responsibility  for  them  in  slack  times. 
W'q  do  not  allow  our  shop  machinery  to  rust  in  times 
o(  dull  business;  why  should  we  allow  our  men  to 
deteriorate?  The  cost  of  tiding  over  enforced  stop- 
pages ought  to  be  figured  in  as  a  cost  of  the  business 
itself. 

If  we  undertook  to  do  tliis,  we  would  be  surprised 
at  the  sj)eed  we  would  make  in  looking  for  large  i)ul)lic 

59 


FORD    IDEALS 


undertakings  to  be  started  in  order  to  fill  up  times  of 
slack  eniijloyment.  In  fact,  we  would  soon  h^ve  mat- 
ters arranged  so  that  slack  times  would  be  impossible. 
When  one  line  slowed  up,  we  would  simply  switch 
on  another,  and  so  keep  things  going. 

It  is  our  duty  to  do  each  of  us  our  bit  in  solving 
this  problem,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  when  Amer- 
ican business  men  try  to  straighten  out  the  industrial 
situation  and  make  it  square  all  round,  they  are  going 
to  succeed.  Nothing  but  selfishness  can  hinder,  for 
selfishness   is  blind. 

This  talk  of  the  returned  soldier  being  a  problem 
hardly  squares  with  the  facts,  lie  is  only  two  mil- 
lions of  our  twenty  millions.  lie  ought  to  fit  back 
into  business  life  as  readily  as  he  fitted  into  the  army; 

To  hear  some  men  talk  you  would  think  that  the 
returning  soldier  would  double  our  dependent  popula- 
tion. He  is  bringing  up  the  reserve  force  that  will 
put  the  country  over  the  top. 

They  talk  of  putting  him  to  work  building  roads, 
booming  worn-out  real  estate  schemes,  and  so  forth. 
It  is  a  wonder  they  would  not  ask  him  about  it  first ! 

No  doubt,  after  the  outdoor  life  of  the  army, 
thousands  of  young  men  will  have  no  desire  to  enter 
the  of^ce  and  store  again.  They  would  prefer  the 
farm.  But  why  plan  to  settle  them  3,000  miles  from 
the  chief  markets?  There  are  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  unused  acres  of  farm  land  at  the  very  back  doors 
of  our  large   eastern  markets. 

Leave  the  big  unsettled  tracts  of  the  West  for 
wholesale  reclamation  and  power  projects.  It  would 
be  splendid  if  we  could  enlist  an  army  of  men  to 
make  the  desert  bloom  and  make  every  mile  of  our 
streams  and  every  foot  of  our  land  productive.  That 
would  be  an  Army  of  the  United  States  indeed !  And 
it  would  appeal  to  heroism  and  constructive  general- 
ship. And  it  would  bring  a  service  record  of  which 
any  man  might  be  proud. 

There  are  big  days  coming  to  us.  We  must  get 
ready  for  them.  \\'e  must  act  as  if  we  had  the  or- 
ders in  our  hands  now.  We  must  begin  to  organize 
our  forces  and  processes  so  as  to  achieve  the  most 
and  the  best  we  can. 


Prevention  Is  Better  Than 
Sympathy 


PAINTING  the  blotch  on  the  skin,  and  leaving  the 
blood  unpiirified,  is  poor  niedical  practice  and  poor 
business.  Unless  we  go  to  the  root  of  our  wrongs 
and  grub  them  out,  it  is  of  no  use  to  try  to  doctor 
the  branches.  Pruning  the  thorn  will  not  change  it 
into  a  potato  plant. 

You  can  fight  a  symptom  until  the  patient  dies  on 
your  hands,  but  unless  you  get  at  the  cause  of  his 
distemper  you  are  only  wasting  your  time  and  giving 
the  disease  a  stronger  hold. 

Take  the  life  of  our  people,  for  example.  We 
know  that  something  is  wrong  with  it.  It  would  be 
extreme  folly  for  us  to  deny  that. 

The  man  who  does  deny  it  is  usually  the  man  who 
is  profiting  by  the  things  that  are  wrong.  Because 
his  nest  is  soft,  he  coddles  himself  into  believing  that 
every  nest  is  soft.  He  does  not  want  to  be  disturbed 
by  any  other  view  of  it. 

This  is  one  of  the  strong  marks  by  which  you  may 
distinguish  sympathy   from  selfishness. 

Granting  that  something  is  wrong  in  our  method 
of  life',  the  wise  coiU"se  to  take  is  not  to  go  about 
tinkering  and  doctoring  the  ettects,  but  to  dig  straight 
in  toward  the  causes. 

Von  will  find,  for  one  part,  that  something  is 
wrong  with  the  people  themselves.  There  is  a  great 
deal  of  shifllessness  in  the  world,  a  great  deal  of 
waste,  a  great  deal  of  drifting. 

^'ou  will  line!  men  who  waiU  to  be  carried  througli 
on  the  shoulders  of  otliers.  \"ou  will  find  men  who 
believe  that  the  world  OWl^S  them  a  living,  bv  which 
they  seem  to  mean  that  their  employer  owes  them  a 
living.  They  don't  seem  to  see  that  we  must  all  lift 
together  and  pull  together,  or  nobody  will  have  an\- 
living  whatever. 


FORD    IDEALS 


It  is  one  of  the  most  harmful  thoughts  a  man  can 
harbor — that  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  any  other  man. 
We  are  all  units  of  power.  We  are  all  parts  of  the 
social  order.  Wherever  one  of  us  holds  back  or  falls 
down,  there  is  a  gap,  and  the  whole  line  suffers  by 
that  much. 

All  this  is  true  enough,  but  to  stop  here  is  to  miss 
half  the  truth.  Many  people  stop  here.  They  lay 
the  whole  blame  for  poverty  and  failure  and  suf- 
fering and   waste  upon  individuals. 

But  our  scheme  of  society  is  at  fault,  too.  We  do 
many  things  badly.  We  permit  too  many  practices 
that  take  advantage  of  the  weak.  We  open  too  wide 
a  field  to  the  grabber.  After  we  have  charged  up 
all  we  can  to  individual  fault,  there  is  a  big  social 
fault  that  must  be  accounted   for. 

And  one  of  our  most  glaring  mistakes  is  to  try  to 
cover  up  the  results  of  social  faults  by  charity,  in- 
stead of  striking  at  the  causes  which  make  charity 
seem  necessary. 

Charily  at  its  best  is  only  a  makeshift.  It  is  an 
endless  patching  of  a  garment  that  ought  to  be  thrown 
away  and  a  new  one  made.  Charity  lowers  the  self- 
respect  of  the  person  who  receives  it  and  it  deadens 
the  conscience  of  the  person  who  gives  it.  It  offers 
far  too  easy  an  escape  from  a  harder  job. 

^\'e  say  we  are  sorry  for  the  hungry  man.  How 
sorry  are  we?  We  are  sorry  enough  to  give  him  a 
little  food.  But  are  we  sorry  enough  to  go  out  and 
tackle  the  conditions  that  make  hunger  possible? 

We  say  we  are  sorry  for  the  unemployed.  But 
how  sorry  are  we?  Arc  we  sorry  enough  to  shoulder 
the  job  of  abolishing  unemployment  from  the  land 
b\-  a  new  and  daring  system  of  industrial  advance? 

It  is  easy  enough  to  be  sorry,  and  to  ease  our  own 
sorrow  by  a  trifling  gift.  Vov  that  is  really  what  we 
do  in  most  of  our  makeshift  charity — we  simply  ease 
our  own  pain  at  the  sight  of  suffering.  Whether  we 
really  ease  the  suffering  of  the  other  man,  or  improve 
his  condition,  is  quite  another  matter. 

\\'e  were  sorry  for  the  man  wounded  in  battle,  and 
so  we  su])ported  the  Red  Cross  and  other  humane 
agencies.     But  how  many  of  us  were  sorry  enough  to 

62 


PREVENTION    IS    BETTER    THAN    SYMPATHY 

undertake  to  abolish  war  altogether?  To  aid  the 
wounded  was  easier  than  to  tackle  the  big  blunder 
that  has  been  wounding  men  for  centuries. 

W'e  can  go  on  to  the  end  of  time  patching  up  the 
wounded  who  ought  never  to  have  been  wounded, 
feeding  the  hungry  who  ought  never  to  have  been 
hungry,  helping  the  poor  who  ought  never  to  have 
been  poor — and  at  the  end  of  all  our  etforts  we  shall 
still  have  war  and  poverty  as  much  as  before. 

l-iegarded  from  the  standpoint  of  efficiency  our 
charity  system  fails  ;  no  matter  how  hard  we  try  we 
are  never  able  to  cover  the  ground.  We  are  always 
missing  someone.  I'rom  whatever  angle  you  study 
it,  charity  is  a  poor  substitute  for  reform. 

We  must  go  deeper  if  we  are  ever  to  accomplish 
anything  worth  while. 

And  we  nuist  quit  being  satisfied  with  our  charitv 
if  we  are  ever  to  see  the  real  job  that  awaits  us.  And 
it  is  no  easy  job,  either;  it  is  not  for  bunglers,  nor 
for  hasty  jK^ople,  nor  for  any  one  who  believes  in  any- 
tliing  but  sound  construction. 

The  doctors  are  ahead  of  us  on  this  line.  Their 
great  word  now  is.  Prevention.  When  typhoid  breaks 
out,  they  do  not  content  themselves  with  giving  their 
best  service  to  the  afflicted  individuals;  they  know 
that  typhoid  is  a  disease  that  no  man  ever  ought  to 
have,  and  so  they  search  out  its  source.  They  abolish 
it   there. 

The  progress  of  medicine  does  not  consist  merely 
in  discovering  cures  for  disease,  but  in  abolishing  it 
so  utterly  that  it  will  cease  to  be  a  problem. 

We  need  that  word  in  our  efforts  toward  a  better 
kind  ot  social  and  industrial  life — Prevention. 

Instead  of  organizing  great  machinery  and  making 
great  ap])eals  for  money  to  camouflage  the  effects  of 
our  social  s\stcm,  we  ought  to  be  at  work  preventing 
the  effects. 

'J'hc  very  ])est  charity  we  know  anything  about  is 
to  help  a  man  to  tlie  place  where  he  will  never  need  it 

Nothing  seems  more  useless  than  the  trouble  we 
take  to  ease  the  elTecls.  when  half  the  troul)le  would 
serve  to  (lestro\-  the  cause. 

We  get    u])   lancy   (lances,   we  give   theatricals,   we 


FORD    IDEALS 


make  budgets  and  take  up  collections,  we  sell  tickets 
for  this  and  that  from  one  year's  end  to  the  other — 
we  undertake  great  expense  to  grant  a  little  temporary 
benefit,  and  when  we  get  through  we  haven't  touched 
the  real  problem. 

Surely  the  futility  of  it  ought  to  get  through  our 
minds  very  soon ! 

It  is  not  the  charitable  mind  that  one  objects  to. 
IJeaven  forbid  that  we  should  ever  grow  cold  toward 
a  fellow-creature  in  need.  Human  sympathy  is  a 
great  motive  power,  and  no  cool,  calculating  attitude 
will  take  the  place  of  it.  One  can  name  very  few  of 
the  great  advances  which  were  not  due  to  human  sym- 
pathy. It  is  in  order  to  do  something  for  people  that 
every  notable  service  is  undertaken. 

The  trouble  is  that  we  have  been  using  this  great 
motive  force  for  too  small  ends.  If  human  sympathy 
prompts  us  to  feed  the  hungry,  why  should  it  not  give 
a  much  greater  prompting  toward  making  hunger  im- 
possible ? 

If  we  have  sympathy  enough  for  people  to  help 
them  IN  their  trouble,  surely  we  ought  to  have  feeling 
enough  to  help  them  OUT  OF  their  trouble. 

The  difficulty  is  that  the  latter  is  a  different  sort 
of  task.  This  kind  of  help  costs  more  than  common 
charity. 

We  must  look  beyond  the  individual  to  the  causes 
of  his  nfisery,  not  hesitating  to  relieve  him  in  the 
meantime,  of  course,  but  not  stopping  with  that. 

It  is  a  pity  that  we  have  to  confess  that  more 
people  can  be  moved  to  help  a  poor  family  than  can 
be  moved  to  give  their  minds  toward  the  removal  of 
poverty  altogether. 

We  have  a  human  conscience  all  right ;  cannot 
we  develop  it  into  a  social  conscience? 

But  people  say,  "What  can  I  do?"  y\nd  men  in 
positions  of  leadershi])  say,  "\\'hat  can  we  do?"  Well, 
this  is  certain — whatever  is  done  will  have  to  be  done 
l)y  all  of  us  together,  so  that  it  is  time  for  all  of  us 
to  get  busv. 

And  tliis  is  certain — we  cannot  improve  condi- 
tions by  kicking  over  the  methods  which  make  our 
conditions  as  good  as  they  are. 


PREVENTION    IS    BETTER    THAN    SYMPATHY 

Grant  that  something  is  wrong;  still  we  cannot 
say  that  everytiiing  is  wrong.  If  it  were,  there  would 
be  much  more  suffering  in  the  world  than  we  now  see. 

Comparing  the  present  with  the  past,  there  is  far 
less  poverty  than  ever  before ;  our  material  life  is  on 
a  much  higher  level  than  it  has  ever  been. 

So  far,  so  good.  But  comparing  the  present  with 
what  ought  to  be.  and  what  could  be,  we  cannot  fail 
to  see  that  much  is  yet  to  be  done. 

What  can  we  do  to  create  what  ought  to  be? 

Our  first  duty  is  our  own  duty.  We  must  do  our 
best  where  we  are.  We  must  be  fair  where  we  are. 
We  must  do  honest  work  where  we  are. 

No  one  who  throws  down  his  tools  is  helping  to 
abolish  poverty. 

Whatever  we  may  agree  to  do  in  the  future,  we 
may  be  sure  of  this :  we  shall  never  be  able  to  make 
any  program  go  without  work. 

If  work  is  to  be  necessary  in  the  better  order  of 
things,  work  is  a  good  cjuality  to  develop  now. 

Every  man  who  works  is  helping  to  drive  poverty 
out  of  the  world — first  his  own.  and  then  that  of  his 
fellow-beings. 

'i'he  man  who  does  better  and  more  ])roductive 
work  loda\'  than  he  did  yesterdav  is  a  social  reformer 
of  the  highest  type.  lie  is  doing  something  genuine. 
Tie  is  s(|uaring  his  own  account  with  the  world,  and 
helping  others  to  sf|uare  theirs. 

livery  time  a  man  stops  work,  he  throws  that 
much  extra  burden  f)n  others;  he  creates  that  nuich 
nio'-e  poverty    for  the   world. 

It  is  not  the  men  who  are  doing  the  talking  who 
are  solving  our  problenw,  but  the  men  who  are  at 
work.     When  they  talk.  tlie\-  know  what  it  is  about. 

And  after  work,  the  n(>xt  duty  is  to  think.  \'o- 
bod\-  can  think  straight  who  does  not  work.  Idleness 
\\ar])s  the  mind.  It  is  a  wonder  w c  do  not  hear  moi-e 
about  that  fact-  -that  the  practiced  hand  gi\es  bal- 
ance to  the  brain. 

Thinking  which  (lo("^  not  connect  with  constructive 
a  tion  becomes  -.i  disease;  the  inrm  who  has  it  sees 
crooked;   his    \ic\\s   arc   lopsided. 

Xo  one  man  can  think  onl   our  great  i)rolilems  for 

65 


FORD    IDEALS 


US.  We  believe  in  democracy  because  we  believe  that 
the  collective  mind  is  better  than  any  single  mind. 

It  is  the  people  thinking  together,  and  planning  to- 
gether, and  acting  together,  that  make  the  great  ad- 
vances possible. 

In  the  long  run  the  people  are  cool-headed. 

That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  changes  seem  to 
come  so  slowly :  the  people  do  not  risk  the  big  mis- 
takes which  end  in  the  big  tragedies.  Every  age 
teems  with  theories  which  only  require  to  stand  awhile, 
and  then  their  falsity  is  revealed. 

We  don't  have  to  test  every  theory  that  is  oTTered. 
Let  it  stand.  If  it  is  right,  it  will  endure.  If  it  is 
wrong,  the  public  mind  simply  outgrows  it. 

No  one  can  imagine  how  much  worse  off  we 
should  be  if  we  followed  every  theory  and  every 
leader  that  promised  us  the  Golden  Age. 

So,  if  our  progress  seems  slow,  it  is  only  the 
people's  carefulness  not  to  make  a  mis-step. 

But  there  is  progress  being  made  all  the  time,  now 
in  this  direction,  now  in  that,  and  then  all  along  the 
line.  And  such  progress  is  a  social  creation.  It  is 
the  people  moving  up. 

And  that  is  the  only  kind  of  progress  there  is. 

If  we  have  not  always  gone  forward  rapidly,  there 
is  a  very  great  fact  to  set  against  that  fact :  the  race 
has  not  had  to  retrace  many  steps  because  of  false 
moves. 


Success  Plays  No  Favorites 


SOMEONE  has  said  that  "imitation  is  the  sincerest 
flattery,"  but  that  is  only  a  hint  to  those  who  wish 
to  flatter.  Imitation  is  a  confession  that  the  thing 
which  is  imitated  is  better  than  one  can  do  himself ; 
it  is  also  a  confession  that  one  is  content  to  be  an 
imitator. 

The  truth  about  imitation  is  found  in  another 
saying — "Imitation  is  suicide." 

Certainly  it  is  the  end  of  initiative  and  independ- 
ence ;  it  is  the  farewell  of  originality ;  it  is  the  delib- 
erate abandonment  of  individuality,  and  the  enemy  of 
genius. 

This  has  a  direct  bearing  on  a  subject  in  which 
everybody  is  interested — Success. 

'J'oo  often  we  hear  Success  spoken  of  as  if  it  can 
be  imitated.  Successful  men  are  held  up  as  examples 
to  young  people  who  are  advised,  "Do  as  this  man 
did  it."  Methods  of  success  are  held  up  for  imita- 
tion with  the  counsel,  "Follow  this  course  and  it  will 
lead  to  success." 

But  success  does  not  come  by  imitation.  An  im- 
itation may  be  quite  successful  in  its  own  way,  but 
imitation  can  never  be  Success. 

Success  is  a  first-hand  creation.  Take  a  thousand 
successful  men,  and  each  man's  story  will  be  different. 
It  will  be  original.  His  grasp  of  opportunity,  his 
methods,  his  plan  of  meeting  and  overcoming  ob- 
stacles, all  of  these  things  will  be  different. 

The  most  dangerous  notion  a  young  man  can 
acquire  is  that  there  is  no  more  room  for  originality. 
There  is  no  large  room  for  anything  else. 

Let  us  put  to  one  side  the  usual  arguments  against 
imitation  in  the  search  for  Success.  hZverybody  knows 
what  they  are,  so  that  we  need  not  recount  them  here. 

l)Ut  it  is  not  always  so  clear  why  nmch  of  our 
Success  advice  is  dangerous. 

67 


FORD    IDEALS 


It  is  very  unwise  to  look  too  long  at  the  successful 
person.     It  is  most  unwise  to  copy  after  him. 

Because  the  things  which  you  will  first  see,  the 
(pialities  which  will  stand  out  as  marking  him,  are 
prohahly  not  the  ones  to  which  he  owes  his  success. 
And  yet,  hecause  they  are  most  prominent,  it  will 
appear  that  they  hold  the  secret  of  his  power.  Very 
often  they  are  hlemishes,  and  had  ihey  not  been  over- 
balanced by  other  qualities  which  are  not  so  easily  per- 
ceived they  might  have  caused  his  failure. 

You  see  a  man  w'ho  is  very  successful  and  who 
is  at  the  same  time  very  unfeeling.  His  heart  is  hard. 
Me  regards  other  men  as  so  many  bricks  to  build  with. 
His  conscience  seems  to  be  asleep.  He  rides  over 
every  human  instinct  and  crushes  every  human  con- 
sideration that  would  oppose  him.  Looking  at  such  a 
man.  it  is  easy  to  say,  "To  succeed,  you  must  be  like 
that ;  you  must  harden  your  heart  and  go  rough-shod 
over  everything." 

Or  you  may  see  another  successful  man  who  ap- 
pears to  l)e  very  daring.  lie  seems  to  do  everything 
thoughtlessly,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  in  a  bril- 
liant dare-devil  spirit.  He  does  not  appear  to  trust  to 
anything  but  luck.  But  matters  tiu'n  out  fortunately 
for  him.  and  therefore  it  is  easy  to  draw  the  con- 
clusion. "The  way  to  be  successful  is  to  fling  ahead 
regardless,  gamble  with  chance,  antl  trust  affairs  to 
come  out  all  right." 

These  appearances  may  l)e  very  misleading.  Dis- 
honest men  do  sometimes  achieve  great  financial  suc- 
cess— American  financial  history  shows  that.  Un- 
feeling, cruel-hearted  men  sometimes  win  great  for- 
tunes in  industry — we  don't  have  to  look  far  to  see  it. 

But  the  (|uestion  is:  Is  their  success  due  to  dis- 
luMiesty  and  hardness,  or  to  (pialities  that  are  not  so 
prominent  ? 

We  must  declare  that  dishonesty  is  not  sufficient  to 
win  success.  A  man  must  have  something  beside  a 
hard  heart  to  win  success. 

i!e  may  have  these  undesirable  (jualities — he  may 
have  them  in  large  measure — but  has  he  other  quali- 
ties beside? 


68 


SUCCESS    PLAYS    NO    FAVORITES 

If  you  look  closely  at  these  men  you  will  see  that 
they  do  have  other  qualities.  They  have  strength, 
foresight,  knowledge,  skill,  experience,  endurance,  ap- 
plication, determination,  gifts  of  management,  judg- 
ment. 

But  these  are  not  surface  qualities.  They  do  not 
stand  out.  They  are  seen  only  on  close  examination 
of  the  man  and  his  business. 

Take  a  group  of  successful  men.  sort  out  the  ones 
who  have  undesirable  traits  of  character — men  who 
have  broken  the  laws  of  the  land  and  the  laws  of 
humanity,  men  who  have  wrung  their  money  out  of 
otlier  men's  labor  and  out  of  the  public's  necessity — 
and  you  can  easily  make  out  an  argument  that  Sue 
cess  is  the  sign  of  a  bad  character. 

But  the  law  of  Success  is  impartial.  So  long  as 
you  have  the  qualities  necessary  for  success,  it  is  to 
be  won,  even  if  you  have  other  (|ualilies  which  alone 
would  spell  failure. 

You  may  have  a  character  which  is  perfect  in  every 
other  respect,  and  yet  if  you  lack  the  ((ualities  neces- 
sary to  success,  you  will  never  win  it. 

Success,  then,  is  a  matter  of  certain  ([ualities  com- 
ing into  play. 

Now  you  cannot  imitate  a  quality.  ^  on  must  cre- 
ate it.  develop  it.  If  you  are  fooled  into  thinking  that 
hardness  and  dishonesty  are  qualities  of  Success,  and 
you  develop  these,  you  will  iind  that  they  will  not 
make  you  a  successful  man  at  all.  Hardness  will  make 
}ou  a  bully  and  dishonesty  will  make  you  a  crook. 
^'ou  must  develop  other  characteristics  if  ycni  would 
be  successful. 

We  are  not  considering  genius  here  at  all.  (ienius 
is  a  gift.  It  comes  to  very  few.  We  are  discussing 
the  normal  man  who  enters  life  endowed  with  phys- 
ical heallh,  his  liye  senses,  and  the  ayerage  degree  of 
intelligence. 

The  genius  walks  into  his  success.  Tlie  rest  of  ns 
must   work   for  ours. 

Now,  what  is  .Snccess? 

.Some  s.'i\-  that  .Success  is  not  nionex'.  \\  ell,  it  is 
doubtless  true   that   money   is   not    the   whole   of    Suc- 

69 


FORD    IDEALS 


cess,  and  yet  in  these  days  you  never  see  any  kind  of 
Success  that  does  not  have  money  somewhere  around 
it.  Certainly  money  is  not  the  end  of  life,  but  it  is  a 
sign.  Since  everyone  needs  money  to  live  as  he  ought, 
to  develop  himself,  to  give  scope  to  his  powers,  money 
has  become  not  only  a  necessary  part  of  living,  but 
the  ambition  to  command  enough  of  it  to  do  these 
things  has  become  a  commendable  ambition. 

Success  is  each  man  finding  the  work  he  can  do 
best,  doing  it  to  his  highest  satisfaction,  and  getting 
the  proof  of  his  service  in  a  suitable  reward. 

If  he  is  the  kind  of  man  who  has  still  greater  vi- 
sions of  service  which  need  still  more  money  to  realize. 
Success  is  his  getting  enough  money  to  fulfill  his  serv- 
ice. There  is  no  harm  in  large  sums  of  money  if 
they  are  kept  at  work  opening  up  lines  of  opportunity 
and  service.  The  only  harmful  money  is  the  money 
which  lies  idle,  or  is  used  to  block  progress. 

Money  for  money's  sake  is  a  perfectly  stupid  motto. 
Money  would  be  as  useless  as  a  heap  of  brass  checks 
if  it  were  not  used  for  development.  So  that  it  is 
true  that  money  itself  is  not  the  whole  of  Success. 

And  then  there  are  certain  lines  of  service  whose 
Success  does  not  require  money  for  their  enlargement, 
and  therefore  money  is  not  the  sign  of  their  worth. 
Take  a  successful  surgeon,  for  example.  His  skill  is 
his  capital.  He  will  make  money,  of  course,  and  he 
deserves  to  make  it.  But  often  he  will  do  service  that 
makes  him  no  money  at  all.  and  still  it  will  be  highly 
successful  service,  because  it  accomplishes  its  object. 
But  the  surgeon  does  not  need  millions  in  order  to 
extend  his  skill.  That  skill  is  in  his  hand,  controlled 
hy  his  brain.  He  cannot  multiply  it.  Pie  cannot  stand- 
ardize operations  and  do  them  by  machine.  There- 
fore, though  his  financial  success  is  deservedlv  satis- 
factory, he  has  not  the  same  need  of  capital  as  another 
would  have. 

But  in  the  industrial  line  it  is  indispensable  that 
financial  success  be  won,  else  there  is  no  way  to  keep 
going,  there  is  no  way  to  open  up  new  lines  and  cre- 
ate new  jobs  for  men.  there  is  no  way  of  paying  better 
wages  and  so  contributing  to  the  general  human 
welfare. 


70 


SUCCESS    PLAYS    NO   FAVORITES 

So  that  it  is  true  again ;  money  is  not  the  only 
standard  of  success,  though  in  some  hues  of  service 
it  is. 

But  in  every  Success,  whether  it  be  professional 
or  industrial,  the  same  qualities  are  necessary.  And 
these  cannot  be  imitated.  They  must  be  real.  They 
must  live  in  the  man  himself  and  grow  out  of  his 
nature.  Few  of  them  are  natural  growth,  however. 
They  must  be  developed,  trained,  kept  under  discipline. 

No  man  wins  success  without  paying  for  it. 

No  man  fails  without  good  reason. 

The  law  of  success  is  no  respecter  of  persons.. 

If  a  man  whom  we  feel  to  be  bad  turns  out  to  be 
a  success,  it  is  because  he  has  fulfilled  the  law  of 
success.  If  a  man  whom  we  feel  to  be  a  very  good 
man  is  a  failure,  it  is  because  he  has  failed  to  fulfill 
the  law  of  success. 

There  is  no  favoritism. 

The  law  of  success  is  a  fair  law.  It  gives  all  a 
chance.  It  doesn't  choose  the  extraordinary  man  and 
favor  him.  Most  successful  men  you  meet  are  really 
ordinary  men  who  have  applied  themselves  to  one 
thing  and  paid  the  price  to  win. 

And  the  law  of  failure  is  just  and  fair.  We  dis- 
like to  think  this  sometimes,  but  unless  it  also  is  true, 
then  there  is  nothing  but  confusion,  no  guide-posts  to 
direct  us. 

We  know  there  are  failures  just  as  we  know  there 
are  successes.  Honest  men  fail  and  dishonest  men 
fail.  Hard-hearted  men  fail  and  kind,  humane  men 
fail.     Why? 

To  find  the  reason  we  must  examine  failure  as 
carefully  as  we  examine  success.  And,  as  in  the  case 
of  success,  the  truth  is  not  on  the  surface. 

There  is  always  a  reason  for  failure,  just  as  there 
is  always  a  reason  for  Success,  and  it  is  found  in  dis- 
obedience to  one  part  of  the  law  of   Success. 

If  failures  did  not  fail,  there  would  be  no  law.  .All 
would  be  chance.  The  fact  that  failures  fail  is  not  a 
discouraging  fact  ;  it  is  just  the  other  side  of  the  law 
by  which  those  wlio  liavc  fulfilled  the  law  of  Success, 
succeed. 


FORD    IDEALS 

There  is  always  a  good  reason,  one  which  impresses 
ds  as  entirely  fair  when  we  understand  it. 

To  state  the  law  of  Success  is  a  pretty  big  task. 
We  may  try  to  state  part  of  it  at  another  time.  But 
certain  elements  of  it  are  clear  at  once. 

There  is  no  Success  without  Application.  This 
means  concentration  of  mind,  labor  of  hand  and  brain, 
and  a  comi)lete  surrender  of  one's  powers  to  what  one 
wishes  to  do. 

There  must  be  Confidence  in  one's  plan,  not  be- 
cause it  is  one's  own  plan,  but  because,  after  surveying 
the  whole  field,  the  needs  of  the  people,  the  fitness  of 
the  service  one  intends  to  give,  one  knows  that  he  is  on 
the  right  track. 

There  nmst  be  Courage.  Unless  you  have  tried 
to  do  something  for  yourself,  you  have  no  idea  how 
often  your  courage  will  be  tested,  how  often  you  will 
stare  bleak  failure  full  in  the  face,  how  many  almost 
crushing  obstacles  will  arise  to  fall  on  you  and  block 
the  way.  The  road  to  Success  is  hard,  and  often  the 
feet  bleed  and  the  heart  nearly  fails.  People  only  see 
the  end  of  it,  and  even  the  end  is  not  all  sunshine.  So 
unless  vou  have  courage,  a  courage  within  your  own 
heart  that  keeps  you  going,  always  going,  no  matter 
what  happens,  there  is  no  certainty  of  Success.  It 
is  really  an  endurance  race.  It  is  a  test  in  holding  out. 
The  untried  venture  has  no  friends  anywhere.  It 
must  make  every  friend  it  gets. 

You  must  have  Knowledge  of  what  you  are  doing. 
Now,  this  is  within  every  man's  reach.  There  is  no 
favoritism  here.  You  must  know  all  there  is  to  know 
of  your  particular  field,  and  keep  on  the  alert  for  new 
knowledge.  The  least  difference  in  knowledge  be- 
tween you  and  .-mother  man  may  spell  his  success  and 
your  faihn-e.  Cuessing  does  not  go.  'f  rusting  to  luck 
is  folly,  (ioing  it  blind  is  taking  a  chance  that  may 
prove  disastrous.  \'ou  must  KNOW.  And  this,  of 
course,  means  that  you  must  be  a  sincere  searcher  all 
tlie  time.  \'es,  even  when  you  ha\e  bcccjme  what  the 
world  calls  a  success.  I'\jr  the  world  moves  swiftly, 
and  it  is  as  bad  not  to  kec])  up  with  it  as  never  to  have 
caught  up  with  it.     Today's  success  is  no  security  for 

72 


SUCCESS    PLAYS    NO    FAVORITES 


tomorrow's   success.      Your   knowledge   must   be   the 
up-to-the-minute  kind. 

As  to  the  moral  qualities,  the  more  you  have  the 
better.  Dishonest  men,  by  obeying  the  other  laws  of 
Success,  may  have  won  a  place.  But  it  is  becoming- 
harder  and  harder  to  do  that.  They  may  have  been 
dishonest  in  dealing,  but  they  cannot  be  dishonest  with 
materials.  They  must  build  their  brick  wall  true,  or 
it  falls  down.  They  must  honestly  obey  the  law  of 
strain,  or  their  bridge  collapses.  They  may  cheat 
their  customer  once,  they  cannot  cheat  nature  even 
once.  Better  not  try  to  cheat  either,  for  dishonesty 
is  a  dry-rot  that  creeps  in  everywhere.  Other  things 
being  equal,  the  honest  man  has  the  better  chance  of 
winning.  The  same  is  true  of  human  kindliness.  All 
other  (jualifications  being  equal  the  humane  man  has 
the  edge  on  the  hard  man. 


7o 


Personal  Relations — Their 
Importance  for  Life 


IF  YOU  trace  down  the  troubles  which  afflict  us  all, 
the  big  disturbing  troubles  and  the  little  nagging 
ones,  you  will  discover  that  a  large  proportion  of 
them  have  their  roots  in  personal  relations. 

Trace  them  and  see.  See  what  an  amazingly  large 
influence  is  exerted  on  your  life  by  what  you  think 
of  other  people,  and  by  what  you  think  other  people 
think  about  you. 

Wrong  personal  relations  are  the  greatest  ob- 
struction that  a  man  can  meet.  Almost  any  other  kind 
of  obstacle  he  can  face  with  a  high  heart ;  but  broken 
relations  between  himself  and  his  fellows  afflict  his 
nature  like  a  wound. 

We  were  meant  to  get  along  one  with  another. 
We  were  meant  to  be  in  harmony.  And  no  other 
proof  of  this  is  needed  than  the  fact  that  the  better 
we  know  each  other  the  more  we  trust  each  other ; 
and  the  larger  the  number  of  people  who  work  in 
harmony  the  greater  the  results  of  their  work. 

People  always  think  better,  work  better,  see  more 
clearly  when  they  are  in  harmony  with  the  people 
whom  they  know.  But  their  minds  are  clouded,  their 
hands  are  heavy  and  their  foresight  is  blinded  when 
they  carry  within  them  the  feeling  that  they  are  at 
odds  with  their  kind. 

It  is  like  a  strain  in  one's  body ;  it  is  painful  and 
hindering.  Humanity-at-large  seems  to  be  one  body ; 
our  immediate  circle  of  associates,  friends  and  kin 
make  a  sort  of  inner  body,  and  any  break  or  strain 
that  occurs  with  them  hurts  and  hinders  us. 

If  a  man  leaves  the  house  in  the  morning  after 
an  angry  word  with  his  wife  he  has  practically  ruined 
his  day  and  hers,  too.  He  ought  to  go  back  and  fix 
up  the  strained  relations.  Husband  and  wife  simply 
cannot  live  their  best  or  do  their  best  under  strained 
conditions. 

74 


PIJISONAL    RELATIONS — THEIR    IMPORTANCE    FOR    LIFE 

You  can  pretty  nearly  identify  the  man  who  left 
home  in  a  sulk — probably  you  could  identify  the  wife, 
too,  if  you  saw  her.  The  signs  of  moral  accident  and 
mental  injury  are  about  them.  They  are  cripples  so 
far  as  human  harmony  is  concerned. 

Railroad  managers  long  ago  learned  how  danger- 
ous it  was  for  an  engineer  to  climb  into  his  cab  and 
take  charge  of  a  train,  after  he  had  left 'home  in  a 
tantrum.  It  would  be  safer  to  hold  up  the  train  while 
the  engineer  went  back  home  and  made  up  with  his 
wife — far  safer. 

If  you  cannot  identify  these  injured  minds  by  the 
faces  they  carry,  you  can  usually  do  so  by  the  work 
they  turn  out.  It  is  crippled  work.  None  of  us  can 
work  unless  our  minds  are  free. 

There  is  a  hint  for  employers  in  this.  It  is  just  as 
possible  to  injure  human  relations  by  wrong  shop 
methods  as  by  wrong  home  conditions. 

The  workman  can  be  made  to  feel  that  he  is  under 
a  driver  or  under  a  leader.  If  he  feels  that  he  is  under 
a  driver  you  have  simply  pinched  up  his  initiative  and 
good-will  to  such  an  extent  that  he  cannot,  at  least 
does  not,  do  his  best. 

If  he  feels  that  he  is  under  a  leader,  whom  he  re- 
spects and  trusts,  then  his  initiative  and  strength  are 
released,  and  his  day's  work  is  free  and  full. 

Nervous  strain  operates  on  people  to  their  dis- 
advantage. Fill  a  child  with  the  feeling  of  con- 
straint, and  he  will  appear  to  you  a  most  stupid  young- 
ster, although  he  may  in  reality  be  a  bright  child. 
Chill  a  performer  by  criticism  and  antagonism  in  ad- 
vance, and  you  simply  freeze  up  the  stream  of  his  skill. 

Now,  if  you  simply  want  the  people  who  help  you 
in  your  shop  to  know  who  is  boss,  you  can  let  them 
know  it  all  right — know  it  in  such  a  way  that  they  will 
never  forget  it  nor  forgive  you. 

The  cheapest  and  easiest  thing  in  the  world  is  to 
show  your  authority,  ^'ou  can  show  your  authority 
till  doomsday  and  make  ])eo])le  fear  it  too ;  but  you 
will  never  make  them  respect   it. 

The  authority  wliich  men  respect  is  the  authority 
of  superior  knowledge  and  good-will. 

75 


FORD    IDEALS 


When  you  fill  a  shop  with  fear,  making  men  slaves 
who  bend  to  their  tasks  when  the  overseer's  eyes  are 
upon  them  and  slacken  when  the  "boss"  passes  on — 
you  haven't  a  free  industry  at  all.  You  are  running  a 
sort  of  prison. 

It  is  not  the  DRIVE  of  the  boss  that  makes  pro- 
duction ;  it  is  the  loyal  good-will  of  the  workers. 

You  see,  this  directly  concerns  personal  relations 
in  industry.  Handling  men,  giving  them  leave  to  act 
upon  their  own  good-will  and  not  under  constant  com- 
pulsion, emancipating  them  from  all  fear  and  anxiety 
and  insecurity  in  their  thoughts  of  the  shop  and  the 
job — this  is  the  secret  of  good-will  in  production. 

You  cannot  secure  all  this  by  good  wages  alone. 
High  wages  help  to  relieve  anxiety  about  living  con- 
ditions at  home.  But  if  in  order  to  keep  those  high 
wages  a  man  is  kept  on  tiptoe  of  anxiety  while  he  is 
at  the  shop,  the  very  purpose  of  high  wages  is  per- 
verted. 

That  is  all  w^e  have  to  go  on — personal  relations. 
And  personal  relations  mean  that  we  know  one  an- 
other, that  we  acknowledge  one  another  to  be  men,  that 
we  deal  squarely  with  one  another,  that  we  have  con- 
fidence in  one  another,  and  that  we  feel  good-will 
toward  each  other. 

The  day  is  coming  when  good-will  shall  be  the 
most  valuable  asset  a  man  can  have. 

Now  just  to  enlarge  this  circle  of  thought  a  little, 
take  the  so-called  question  of  "labor  and  capital." 
When  you  boil  it  down,  what  do  you  get? — a  lot  of 
broken   human   relations. 

The  capitalist  is  just  a  man.  "fhe  laborer  is  just 
a  man.  I'hey  are  bom.  grow,  marry,  live  and  die  in 
the  same  way.  Their  joys  are  pretty  nnich  alike,  and 
so  are  their  troubles.  1^hey  arc  plain  human  beings. 
Circumstances  have  i)]ace(l  one  in  one  job.  the  other 
in  another  job.  Hut  in  the  end  it  is  always  the  same 
job. 

Well,  what  has  driven  them  apart  ?  What  makes 
them  say  hard  things  against  one  another? 

They  have  gotten  out  of  touch  with  each  other, 
broken  the  human  relation,  that's  all — and  often 
through  no   fault   of  their  own. 


PERSONAL    RELATIONS — THEIR    IMPORTANCE    FOR    LIKE 

Take  certain  capitalist  papers  and  read  them.  You 
will  be  amnzed  by  some  of  the  statements  they  make 
about  the  laboring  class,  as  they  call  it.  We  who 
have  been  and  still  are  a  part  of  the  laboring  class  know- 
that  the  statements  are  untrue.  We  feel  that  if  the 
writers  only  knew  the  people  of  whom  they  write, 
their  views  would  be  changed. 

And  then  take  certain  of  the  labor  papers  and 
read  them.  You  are  equally  amazed  by  some  of  the 
statements  they  make  about  "capitalists."  so-called. 
Some  of  us  who  know  that  capitalists  are  just  men. 
many  of  them  working  harder  than  they  ever  did 
years  ago  when  they  were  classed  "laboring"  men. 
know  how  unjust  some  of  these  statements  are. 

And  yet  on  both  sides  there  is  truth,  of  course. 
The  man  who  is  a  capitalist  and  nothing  else,  who 
gambles  with  money  in  the  fruits  of  other  men's 
labors,  deserves  all  that  is  said  against  him.  He  is  in 
precisely  the  same  class  as  the  chea])  gambler  who 
cheats  workingmen  out  of  their  wages.  There  is  no 
difference. 

Now.  if  you  look  close  you  will  see  that  in  the 
capitalistic  and  the  labor  press  there  is  a  sort  of  mid- 
dle-class who  pander  to  the  prejudices  of  the  class 
they  serve.  The  statements  we  read  about  the  labor- 
ing class  in  the  capitalistic  i)ress  are  seldom  written 
by  managers  of  great  industries,  but  bv  a  middle- 
class  of  writers  who  are  writing  what  tliev  think  will 
l)lease  their  ca])italistic  leaders.  Tliev  write  wliat  thev 
imagine  will  ])lease;  they  havr  no  desire  to  correct 
or  instruct. 

ILxamine  the  l.ubor  ])res^  and  you  will  find,  in  some 
l)arls  of  it.  another  micblle-class  of  writers  who  seek 
to  tickle  the  prejudices  which  lhe\-  conceive  the  labor- 
ing man   to  have. 

.And  what  is  the  result?  Why.  one  class  rt'ads 
material  that  inflames  it  .against  tlie  other,  .and  ilie 
other  does  the  same,  'fhe  result  is  that  we  hnvc  two 
great  necessary  and  coniplementar\-  el.asses  in  con- 
temjM  ot  I'ai-li  other  withont  e\-en  know  in;;  I'.'irli  other 
■ — taking  the  word  of   middlemen-writers    for  it. 

Now,   this    will    never   do.      'fin's    i^    inhunirni.    un- 


FORD    IDEALS 

reasonable.  You  can  no  more  indict  a  class  than  you 
can  indict  a  nation.  Good  and  bad  are  mixed  up  in 
all  classes.  The  only  class  line  any  sound-minded  man 
ought  to  recognize  is  the  line  drawn  by  decency  and 
morality. 

Because  one  man  is  at  the  machine  end  of  an  in- 
dustry and  another  man  is  at  the  management  end, 
that  is  no  reason  why  human  relations  should  be 
broken  between  them.  That  is  no  basis  for  class  dis- 
tinctions. If  the  manager  thinks  it  is,  he  is  wrong. 
If  the  machinist  thinks  it  is,  he  is  wrong  too. 

Men  are  not  divided  by  the  kind  of  work  they  do, 
but  by  the  kind  of  men  they  are. 

Men  who  are  doing  their  own  work  as  well  as 
they  can,  who  are  working  out  methods  which  will 
bring  more  justice  into  industry  and  more  comfort  to 
mankind,  who  are  on  the  side  of  progress  and  order 
and  humanity  and  right — these  men  belong  to  one 
class,  no  matter  what  their  financial  rating  may  be. 

And  men  who  are  shirking  work  whenever  they 
can,  who  are  inventing  new  tricks  to  steal  the  fruits 
of  others'  labor,  who  oppose  better  conditions  and  who 
are  standpatters  on  all  the  privilege  and  injustice  and 
semi-slavery  that  exist — these  men  belong  to  another 
class,  and  some  of  them  are  capitalists  and  some  of 
them  are  laborers. 

It  is  the  first  class  that  is  going  to  make  the  world 
a  better  place  to  live  in  and  the  lot  of  humanity  more 
desirable.  It  is  the  class  to  which  every  man  of  good- 
will should  belong — does  belong  by  his  very  nature. 

Nothing  is  more  perilous  to  right  human  relations 
than  to  take  your  views  of*  any  man  through  a  third 
man's  eyes. 

Every  one  of  us  has  had  the  experience  of  being 
made  suspicious  and  unfriendly  toward  a  person  on 
another  person's  say-so,  and  having  to  revise  our 
opinions  as  soon  as  we  came  to  know  the  man  himself. 

Something  like  this  is  going  on  all  the  time.  It 
makes  for  disorder  in  all  our  relations,  industrial, 
social  and  domestic.  You  see  it  in  almost  every  shop 
■ — two  men  at  loggerheads,  simplv  because  thev  have 
received  their  views  of  each  other  from  unfriendly 
second-hand  sources. 


PhRSONAL    RELATIONS — THEIR    IMPORTANCE    FOR    LIFE 

The  cure  of  all  this  is  to  come  together,  know  each 
other,  see  the  man  as  he  is,  know  him  in  his  natural 
feeling  and  intention — and  when  we  can  do  this,  there 
are  very,  very  few  human  beings  in  whom  we  cannot 
find  a  basis  of  fellowship. 

And  until  we  can  do  this,  the  wiser  way  is  to  sus- 
pend judgment  altogether. 

Half  the  disharmony  in  human  relations  today  is 
founded  on  assumption,  guesses,  misinformation. 

One  of  the  regrettable  and  yet  inevitable  results 
of  our  modern  industrial  development  is  that  it  places 
us  so  far  apart.  We  all  remember  the  time  when 
we  knew  every  person  in  the  shop ;  it  was  a  kind  of 
family.  We  knew  about  good  luck  and  bad  luck  at 
home ;  we  knew  about  new  babies  and  about  the  sick- 
nesses and  deaths ;  we  had  a  fellow-feeling  for  one 
another. 

Human  beings  have  not  changed.  Human  rela- 
tions are  just  as  necessary  now  as  they  ever  were. 
And  men  have  not  become  machines  in  the  meantime. 
We  must  contrive  some  way  of  retaining  the  liuman 
touch  in  industry.  We  shall  need  it  as  long  as  we 
need  the  human  element  and  that  will  be  until  the 
end  of  time. 

One  way  to  do  this  is  to  maintain  the  superiority 
of  men  over  machines.  You  can  drive  a  machine  until 
it  breaks — you  must  not  drive  men  that  way. 

Another  way  is  to  retain  human  initiative  in  in- 
dustry. A  shop  that  is  organized  in  fear  may  be  ap- 
])arently  a  smoothly  working  organization,  but  it  has 
not  the  willing  "shove"  of  the  shop  that  works  from 
loyalty.  bLven  the  driver  cannot  drive  all  the  time. 
And  the  shoj)  personnel  that  works  all  day  in  the  feel- 
ing of  fear  or  anxiety  is  always  on  the  look-out  to  get 
another  job.     It  doesn't  ])ay  to  be  clianging  men. 

Old  em]:)loyes,  like  old  friends,  are  best. 

Satisfied  employes,  men  who  are  on  their  honor, 
men  who  feel  that  it  is  to  their  own  interest  to  do 
their  best — that  is  the  best  organization  an\-  business 
can  have.  I'.ut  yon  cannot  get  it  through  friction. 
\  on  nuist  get  it  through  real  human  relations. 

When   wc  all    feel   that   we  can  trust   one  another, 

79 


FORD    IDEALS 

that  we  do  not  have  to  be  continually  on  guard  against 
each  other,  that  our  loyalty  and  interest  are  not  going 
to  be  taken  a  mean  advantage  of,  then  how  freely  the 
work  flows,  how  freely  a  man  gives  his  best  to  his  job! 

We  need  better  personal  relations  everywhere.  It 
is  the  great  need  of  the  world  just  now.  All  that 
looks  dark  on  the  horizon  of  modern  life  is  really  the 
result  of  bad  personal  relations.  And  it  can  be  cleared 
up  by  a  new  growth  of  genuine  friendship  among  us. 

That,  after  all  is  said  and  done,  is  what  the  brother- 
hood of  man  means- — we  trust  each  oth(?r,  we  wish 
well  to  each  other,  we  help  each  other. 


Cultivate  Your  Own  Market 


THERE  was  a  time  when  the  wise  men  assured 
us  that  Commerce  would  be  a  world  preventive 
of  war.  Trade  was  valuable,  we  were  told,  and  only 
a  fool  would  want  to  kill  off  his  customers.  Mucli 
was  said  also  about  the  better  acquaintance  which 
would  grow  out  of  international  business ;  we  would 
like  the  Chinese  better  because  we  bought  tea  from 
them ;  we  would  understand  and  appreciate  the  Ger- 
man because  we  bought  goods  from  him  ;  and  every 
nation  which  did  business  with  Americans  would  learn 
to  love  and  respect  them. 

Well,  at  the  apex  of  the  greatest  commercial  age 
the  greatest  war  broke  out.  And  if  there  is  any  truth 
at  all  in  the  mass  of  explanation  that  has  been  made, 
our  business  relations  with  each  other  had  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  it.  Some  of  the  greater  business  men 
of  Germany  have  told  how  the  war  was  tigured  in 
advance  on  a  profit  basis,  and  iherc  arc  enough  facts 
at  hand  to  indicate  that  business  had  more  lo  do  with 
the  outbreak  than  ])olilics  had. 

/\t  the  same  time,  and  in  spile  of  the  commercial 
element  in  the  causes  of  the  war.  there  ought  to  be  an 
enlightening  and  binding  (juality  in  the  commercial 
relations  between  nations,  and  there  would  be  it  busi- 
ness were  onl\-  what  it  ought  to  be  and  can  be. 

The  signs  of  the  times  are  that  the  world  is  reath' 
to  go  back  to  the  same  old  buNiness  b;isis  as  bt-lore, 
and  it  it  does  we  are  onl\'  la\ing  the  ba-^is  tor  new 
misunderstandings. 

It  the  nations  ;ire  to  become  bn^-niess  rom|)etitors 
again,  the  old  spn"it   ol    ant;iL',onisni   will   be   ri'xived. 

Two  men  or  two  lirnis  n!a\'  be  conipt'litor^  and 
live  together  without  ruplming  their  relations  with 
each  other,  without  ilei)aitini^  Iron)  the  law  ot  de- 
cency; but  that  is  next  to  iiupo-^sibjc  fdr  two  nation-- 
to  do. 


FORD    IDEALS 

When  the  political  power  of  a  government  puts 
itself  behind  the  competitive  commercial  ambitions  of 
its  money  magnates,  acts  are  likely  to  be  committed 
of  which  no  private  competitor  would  dream. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  United  States  that  our 
Government  refused  to  allow  American  business  to 
take  unfair  advantage  of  the  stricken  nations  of  Eu- 
rupe  in  stealing  their  markets  from  them ;  and  one  of 
the  very  great  moral  acts  of  the  war  was  the  assurance 
given  by  America  that  we  were  above  making  a  grand 
grab  for  the  very  living  of  those  nations  for  whose 
help  we  raised  armies. 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  this,  there  is  every  indication 
that  the  world  is  going  to  slip  back  into  the  old  system 
of  one  nation  cutting  under  another  for  the  sake  of 
trade. 

It  isn't  the  amovmt  of  trade  that  makes  a  nation 
great,  for  if  you  will  study  the  more  recently  indus- 
trialized countries  you  will  discover  that  the  change 
consists  mostly  in  taking  the  people  off  the  land,  away 
from  agriculture,  and  running  them  through  a  factory 
system  whose  sole  aim  and  object  is  the  creation  of 
great  private  fortunes. 

The  creation  of  private  fortunes,  like  the  creation 
of  an  autocracy,  does  not  make  any  country  great ; 
nor  does  the  mere  change  of  an  agricultural  popula- 
tion into  a  factory  population. 

What  accomplishes  the  desired  end  is  the  wise 
development  of  its  natural  resources  combined  with  a 
high  development  of  the  skill  of  its  people,  and  a  gen- 
eral diffusion  among  all  classes  of  the  prosperity  thus 
gained. 

Foreign  trade  is  full  of  delusions.  The  ultimate 
basis  of  foreign  trade  is  going  to  be  the  supply  of 
those  commodities  which  cannot  be  raised  or  manu- 
factured in  the  places  to  which  we  send  them. 

If  every  nation  were  fully  developed  so  that  it 
could  supply  itself  with  the  articles  it  now  imports, 
foreign  trade  would  be  diminished  just  that  much. 

W^e  ought  to  wish  for  every  nation  as  large  a  de- 
gree of  self-support  as  possible.  Instead  of  wishing 
to  keep  them  dependent  on   us   for  what  we  manu- 

82 


CULTIVATE    YOUR     OWN     MARKET 

facture,  we  should  wish  them  to  learn  the  arts  them- 
selves, to  clothe  and  feed  and  house  themselves  and 
build  up  a  solidly  founded  civilization. 

When  every  nation  learns  to  produce  the  things 
which  every  nation  can  produce,  then  we  will  be  able 
to  get  down  to  a  basis  of  serving  each  other  along 
those  special  lines  in  which  there  can  be  no  competi- 
tion. 

The  north  temperate  zone  will  never  be  able  to 
compete  with  the  tropics  in  the  special  products  of 
the  tropics.  Our  country  will  never  be  a  competitor 
with  the  Orient  in  the  production  of  tea,  nor  with  the 
South  in  the  production  of  rubber. 

A  very  large  proportion  of  our  foreign  trade  is 
based  on  the  backwardness  of  our  foreign  customers. 
Selfishness  is  a  motive  that  would  preserve  that  back- 
wardness. Humanity  is  a  motive  that  would  help  the 
backward  nations  to  a  self-supporting  basis. 

Better  than  shooting  the  African  native  to  make 
him  buy  your  cotton  and  your  beads,  is  his  develop- 
ment so  that  he  can  supply  his  own  needs  and  build 
up  a  business  in  the  commodities  of  which  Nature 
has  given   his  country  a  monopoly. 

Take  Mexico,  for  example.  We  have  heard  a 
great  deal  about  the  "development"  of  Mexico.  Ex- 
ploitation is  the  word  that  ought  to  be  used  instead. 
When  its  rich  natural  resources  are  exploited  for 
the  increase  of  the  private  fortunes  of  foreign  capi- 
talists, it  is  not  development,  it  is  ravishment. 

You  can  never  develop  Mexico  until  you  develop 
the  Mexican.  And  yet  how  much  of  the  "develop- 
ment" of  Mexico  by  foreign  exploiters  ever  took  ac- 
count of  the  development  of  its  people?  The  Mexican 
peon  has  been  regarded  as  mere  fuel  for  the  foreign 
money-makers,  that's  all.  Foreign  trade  has  been  his 
degradation. 

Yet  think  what  Mexico  could  be,  with  its  people 
trained  to  use  the  resources  of  the  land,  and  supplying 
the  world  with  those  commodities  in  which  she  most 
abounds.  She  would  then  become  a  different  kind  of 
a  customer,  it  is  true,  but  also  a  better  kind. 

Start  Mexico  working.  Teach  her  people  how  to 
erect   and   manage   their  own    industries.      (Jive   tlieni 


FORD     IDEALS 


the  benefit  of  our  experience  and  guidance.  And 
then  you  have  done  something  for  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  the  world. 

Short-sighted  people  are  afraid  of  such  counsel,  for 
they  say,  "Where  would  our  foreign  trade  be  then?". 

When  the  natives  of  Africa  begin  raising  their 
own  cotton  and  the  natives  of  Russia  begin  making 
their  own  farming  implements  and  the  natives  of  China 
begin  supplying  their  own  wants,  it  will  make  a  dif- 
ference to  be  sure,  but  does  any  thoughtful  man 
imagine  that  the  world  can  long  continue  on  the  pres- 
ent basis  of  a  few  nations  supplying  the  entire  world? 
We  must  think  in  terms  of  what  the  world  will  be 
when  civilization  becomes  general,  when  all  the  peoples 
have  learned  to  help  themselves. 

Take  Germany  for  example.  The  United  States 
formerly  depended  on  her  for  dye-stuffs.  Now  we 
are  making  our  own.  Isn't  it  right  that  we  should 
make  our  own  ?  Had  (jermany  any  ground  for  believ- 
ing that  we  should  always  remain  dependent  on  her 
when  our  own  initiative  could  make  us  inde[)endent ? 
Is  German}-  doomed  because  foreign  trade  is  cut  off? 

Not  at  all.  Germany  has  the  land  with  which  to 
feed  herself  anci  in  the  absence  of  foreign  trade  she 
is  left  free  to  develop  herself. 

When  a  country  grows  mad  about  foreign  trade 
it  usually  depends  on  other  countries  for  its  raw  ma- 
terial, turns  its  population  into  factory  fodder,  creates 
a  private  rich  class,  and  lets  its  own  immediate  in- 
terests lie  neglected. 

Here  in  the  United  States  we  have  enough  work 
to  do  developing  our  own  country  to  relieve  us  of  the 
necessity  of  looking  for  foreign  trade  for  a  long  time. 
W'e  have  agriculture  enough  to  feed  us  while  we  are 
doing  it ;  and  money  enough  to  carry  the  job  through 
without  a  jolt. 

If  there  is  anything  more  stupid  than  the  United 
.States  standing  idle  because  japan  or  I'^rance  or  anv 
other  country  hasn't  sent  us  an  order,  when  there  is 
a  hundred-year  job  awaiting  us  in  developing  our 
own  couiUry.  it  would  be  difficult  to  discover  it. 

Every   nation's   country   is   its   farm,   so   to   speak. 

84 


CULTIVATE     VOUK     OWN     MARKET 

It  can  live  on  it.  There  are  always  chores  to  do  to 
keep  up  the  farm.  There  are  always  improvements 
to  he  made — and  there's  the  farmer  to  do  it  and  food 
in  his  granary  to  support  him  while  he  is  doing  it. 

Commerce  in  its  purity  is  a  great  fact.  But  com- 
merce hegan  in  service.  Men  carried  of  their  surplus 
to  people  who  had  none.  The  country  that  raised 
corn  carried  it  to  the  country  that  could  raise  no  corn. 
The  lumher  country  hrought  wood  to  the  treeless  plain. 
The  vine  country  brought  fruit  to  cold  northern 
climes.  The  i)asture  country  brought  meat  to  the 
grassless  region.     It  was  all  service. 

When  all  the  peoples  of  the  world  become  de- 
veloped in  the  art  of  self-support,  commerce  will  get 
back  to  that  basis.  Business  will  once  more  become 
service.  There  will  be  no  competition,  because  the 
basis  of  competition  will  have  vanished.  The  tropics 
have  a  monopoly  of  sunshine.  The  temperate  zones 
have  a  monopoly  of  the  hardy  grains.  The  great 
pampas  have  a  monopoly  of  pasturage  for  cattle 
raising.  The  mineral  regions  and  the  oil  (le])ositories 
have  a  natiu"al  monopoly  of  these  things. 

And  the  peoples  will  develop  skill  which  will  be  in 
the  nature  of  monopoly  and  not-c(jmi)etitive.  We  al- 
ready see  evidence  of  these  national  gilts  in  the  arts, 
l-'rom  the  beginning  the  races  have  exhibited  distinct 
strains  of  genius:  this  one  for  government;  another 
for  colonization;  another  for  the  sea;  anotlier  for  art 
and  nnisic  ;  another  for  agriculture  ;  another  for  lousi- 
ness, and  so  on. 

Lincoln  said  tb;u  this  nation  could  not  survive  half- 
slave  and  half-free.  The  human  race  cannot  forever 
exist  half  ex])loiter  and  half  exploited.  Until  we  be- 
come bnvers  and  sellers  alike,  ])ro(lucers  and  con- 
sumers alike,  kee])ing  the  balance  not  for  pi'otit  but 
for  service,  we  are  going  to  have  a  topsy-turvy  con- 
(litif)n. 

I'ntil  society  in  its  relations  balances,  the  account 
is  going  to  be  wroni,''.  And  the  best  wav  to  balance 
it  is  to  make  ever\-  nation  as  nearlv  self-supporting  in 
tin-  conimon  necessities  as  is  possible.  Then  com- 
merce may  be  built  up  on  those  articles  which  do  not 

85 


FORD    IDEALS 

depend  on  competitive  throat-cutting  for  their  ad- 
vancement, but  on  sheer  need  and  supply. 

France  has  something  to  give  the  world  of  which 
no  competition  can  cheat  her.  So  has  Italy.  So  has 
Russia.  So  have  the  countries  of  South  America. 
So  has  Japan.  So  has  Britain.  So  has  the  United 
States. 

Everyone  knows^,  also,  that  our  present  system  of 
foreign  exploitation  is  a  menace  to  our  own  peace. 
President  Wilson  saw  that  most  clearly  in  the  Mex- 
ican situation.  Fortunately  for  our  country,  both 
President  and  people  saw  what  the  trouble  was  down 
there.  It  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  demand 
of  exploiters  that  we  protect  them  while  they  skimmed 
the  cream  of  Mexican  natural  wealth. 

There  is  no  backward  country  in  the  world  but 
would  welcome  any  foreign  producer  who  comes  in 
with  a  view  to  developing  the  country.  Because,  when- 
ever you  undertake  to  develop  a  country  you  must  de- 
velop the  people,  too.  ^^^henever  any  people  raises  the 
cry,  "Our  country  for  ourselves,"  as  Mexico  said, 
"Mexico  for  the  Mexicans,"  it  is  a  sure  sign  that 
they  have  been  exploited  by  outsiders.  Nobody  ob- 
jects to  true  development  because  everybody  sees  the 
good  and  shares  in  the  benefit  of  it.  But  human  na- 
ture, even  in  the  black  savages  of  Africa,  who  are 
exploited  in  the  rubber  trade  and  the  diamond  mines, 
objects  to  being  regarded  as  mere  human  fuel  for 
foreign  forge  fires. 

Men  who  are  kept  busy  at  home  do  not  start  wars 
for  foreign  markets.  And  foreign  markets  that  are 
won  through  service  and  not  through  commercial 
trickery  are  never  the  breeding  cause  of  wars. 

A  nation,  like  a  man,  should  be  self-supporting. 
Having  squared  his  own  account,  the  man  becomes  a 
good  citizen,  a  good  customer,  and  a  peaceable  factor 
in  the  general  prosperity.     So  also  the  nation. 

But,  if  after  the  battle  of  guns,  we  are  going  back 
to  the  battle  of  goods  again,  in  the  same  old  spirit  of 
injury  and  deceit,  we  are  only  preparing  for  the  day 
when,  as  in  1914,  we  drop  our  order-books  and  seize 
weapons. 

It  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  abolish  war  everywhere 
and  first  of  all  in  Commerce. 

86 


"Labor  and  Capital"  Are 
False  Terms 


AMONG  the  tools  we  work  with  are  words.  Words 
stand  for  ideas,  but  ideas  are  often  held  back  for 
lack  of  words,  as  freight  is  held  up  for  lack  of  cars. 
Many  men  who  possess  ideas  are  hindered  because 
they  do  not  possess  enough  words  to  deliver  them. 
You  may  notice  this  in  cvn-rent  discussions  of  our 
social  problems.  It  sometimes  happens  that  people 
who  indulge  in  these  discussions  exhibit  a  lack  of 
word-tools  with  which  to  complete  their  mental  work. 

For  example :  you  may  hear  the  whole  human  race 

summed  up  under  two  heads.  Labor  and  Capital ;  and 

you    may    hear    serious    discussions    proceed    on    the 

.assumption  that  these  two  "classes"  comprise  all  the 

elements  of  the  social  problem. 

When  you  take  the  man  who  works  with  his  hands 
and  set  him  on  one  side,  and  the  capitalist-idler  on 
the  other  side,  you  have  not  divided  the  human  world. 
There  are  hosts  of  people  in  between.  But  because 
we  are  tied  to  the  terms  Labor  and  Capital,  we  go 
along  under  the  notion  that  we  have  included  every- 
body. 

The  figure  4  will  not  serve  if  7  is  meant ;  neither 
will  the  word  "capitalist"  serve  when  it  is  only  "manu- 
facturer" that  is  intended. 

1  he  trouble  is  that  under  the  terms  Labor  and 
Caj)ital  we  include  elements  we  do  not  intend. 

We  ought  to  be  absolutely  merciless  in  our  intel- 
lectual isolation  of  capitalists,  so  that  we  mav  see 
them  clearly  by  themselves  and  not  mixed  up  with 
other  elements  that  do  not  belong  there. 

To  speak  only  of  Labor  and  CajMtal  is  to  ]")ennit 
too  much  good  company  to  surround  tlie  mere  capi- 
talist who  produces  nothing  and  who  skims  the  cream 
off  other  men's  product. 

I'ndcr  that   formula  wliich  (li\i(lcs  the   world  into 


FORD    IDEALS 

two  classes,  the  dangerous  capitalist  is  allowed  to 
escape  in  the  crowd,  or  take  to  himself  the  credit  of 
other  people  who  happen  to  be  mistaken  for  mem- 
bers of  his  class.  lie  claims  the  credit  due  the  man- 
ufacturer, banker,  legitimate  financier — for  it  must 
always  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  man  may  be  a  manu- 
facturer, a  banker  or  a  gifted  financier  without  being 
within  a  thousand  miles  of  the  status  of  a  mere 
capitalist. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  some  circles  to  recognize 
the  poverty  of  these  word-tools  "labor"  and  "capital," 
and  to  help  enrich  them  by  adding  another — "public 
opinion." 

The  idea  is  that  somewhere  between  "labor"  on 
the  one  hand  and  "capital"  on  the  other,  there  stands 
a  neutral  body  of  humanity  which  is  neither  "labor" 
nor  "capital,"  but  the  Public. 

This  idea  is  erroneous.  It  is  applicable  only  in 
the  most  narrowly  local  w^ay.  If  a  small  group  like  the 
street  railway  employes  or  the  milkmen — any  small 
group  that  serves  the  larger  group — has  an  industrial 
disagreement  which  prevents  its  giving  service,  thus 
causing  public  loss  or  danger,  then  this  entity  which 
we  call  Public  Opinion  asserts  itself,  because  the  Pub- 
lic is  larger  than  the  group  that  disturbs  its  functions. 

But  in  the  larger  social  sense,  when  you  have 
marshaled  all  the  people  who  are  involved  in  the  social 
problem,  you  have  none  left  to  classify  as  the  Public 
— there  are  no  neutrals.  Public  Opinion,  as  it  is  com- 
monly meant,  can  exist  only  when  the  majority  is  not 
directly  concerned  in  a  disagreement  but  only  affected 
by  its  results. 

If  there  were  "labor"  and  "caiMtal"  only,  as  two 
camps,  with  Public  Opinion  between,  and  if  this  Pub- 
lic Opinion  were  defmitely  deciclcd  as  to  the  difference 
between  the  two  camps,  then  the  difficulty  would  be 
as  good  as  settled. 

If  Public  Opinion  were  some  great  Court  of  the 
Human  Conscience  to  which,  on  a  set  dav.  Labor  and 
Capital  could  both  go  to  plead  their  cause  and  get  a 
verdict  in  agreement  with  the  will  of  the  Public,  it 
would  be  very  simi)le.     But  in  the  larger  social  prob- 

88 


LABOR    AND    CAPITAL      ARE    FALSE    TERMS 

leni,  when  you  have  drawn  up  your  Htigants,  there  is 
no  one  left  to  man  the  hench. 

Better  than  PuhHc  Opinion  is  the  Social  Con- 
science ;  this  exists  over  and  in  and  through  all  social 
divisions.  We  know,  some  of  us  vividly  and  some  of 
us  vaguely,  that  something  is  wrong  with  the  social 
system.  And  we  know  that  we  scarcely  know  enough 
ahout  the  trouhle  to  set  it  right.  But  the  world  and 
his  wife,  of  all  classes  and  interests,  are  mulling  the 
matter  over  in  their  minds.  By  and  hy  they  will  de- 
cide that  the  trouhle  is  here,  and  here,  and  there,  and 
having  decided  this,  the  .Social  Conscience,  which  is 
far  more  effective  than  Puhlic  Opinion,  will  step  in 
and  set   right  the  wrong. 

\\'e  are  always  doing  that.  The  dii'liculty  is  that 
no  individual  life  is  long  enough  to  see  how  steadily 
social  progress  has  hecn  made,  how  relentlessly  the 
Social  Conscience  has  kept  on  the  joh.  We  can  hardly 
\isualize  the  ])rogrcss  that  has  heen  made  in  our  own 
lifetime.  Certainly  we  are  leaving  a  hetter  system  to 
our  children  than  our  fathers  left  to  us.  /Vnd  it  is 
certain  that  those  who  come  after  us  will  huild  upon 
our  work  where  it  is  good,  and  tear  it  down  where  it 
is  had.  ( )in'  work  is  had  wherever  we  have  allowed 
selfish  or  class  intei'cst  to  rule  it.  It  is  j^ood  wherever 
we  have  looked  to  justice  and  hunianitv  to  guide  us. 

P»ul  what  we  were  saving  is  that  in  adding  the 
word-tool  "I'uhlic  ( )i)inion"  we  have  not  heljx'cl  verv 
much  oiu"  poverty  of  word-symhols  for  the  tilings  we 
are  trying  to  think   intelligently   ahout. 

If  we  must  divide  the  world  into  two  camps,  wh\' 
not  lahel  tlieiii  Producers  and  .\'oii- I'roduL'ers  ?  That 
rules  out  the  idlers  ot  eveiv  class—  and  we  must  isolate 
the  idlers  first.  When  we  fiiul  the  producers  and 
classity  them  according  to  their  value  to  the  ])ro- 
ductive  ])roct'ss,  then  we  are  in  a  position  to  go  on  to 
the  (|uestioii  of  (list rihutiiig  tlu'  ri'warils  of  ])roduction. 

It  is  in  industry  as  in  the  recent  w;u" :  the  war 
conid  not  Ii;i\'e  heen  carrii'd  on  onl\-  hv  the  men  who 
hore  ritles  in  tlie  front  trenclie'-.  The  engineers,  the 
transport  men,  the  conimissar\-,  the  managing  officers, 
the  liiiancial  geninsi's,  the  planners  ;ui<l  managers  hotli 
military  and  civil — these  also  had   a  jiart   in   the   war. 

89 


FORD    IDEALS 


It  required  six  men  to  maintain  one  soldier  in  the  field. 

So,  when  you  say  Labor  or  Producers,  whom  do 
you  mean?  Not  only  the  infantrymen  of  industry  at 
the  machines  in  the  shops,  but  all  who  in  any  way 
are  essential  to  the  making  of  the  product. 

The  man  whose  idea  gave  birth  to  the  machine, 
the  draughtsman  whose  skill  determined  the  relation 
of  part  with  part,  the  trained  machine  maker  whose 
ability  and  experience  brought  the  machine  into  exist- 
ence, all  these  have  their  part  as  well  as  the  workman 
who  operates  the  machine  after  it  is  built  and  installed. 

The  manager  who  may  not  soil  his  hands  at  all, 
whose  workbench  may  be  a  desk,  whose  job  is  to  make 
the  shop  a  harmonious  whole  so  that  neither  time,  ef- 
fort nor  material  is  wasted,  also  has  a  part  in  the 
product.  Management  is  an  essential  part  of  in- 
dustry, it  is  a  trade  in  itself. 

Then  there  is  the  financial  end  of  the  business, 
whose  part  is  to  see  that  enough  money  is  brought  in 
to  pay  the  workman  and  to  carry  the  business  over 
slack  periods  or  periods  of  expansion — this  also  is  pro- 
ductive work.  Everyone  knows  what  a  tragedy  it  is 
when  a  business  fails  through  mismanagement  or  bad 
financiering.  It  simply  destroys  jobs,  throws  men 
out  of  work,  renders  their  earning  ability  a  total  loss 
for  the  time  being,  and  often  makes  a  sad  difference 
in   the   condition   of    families. 

So,  when  you  have  begun  with  the  workman  who 
is  the  infantryman  of  industry  and  gone  on  through 
all  the  departments  which  co-operate  with  the  work- 
man to  render  his  work  effective  and  his  job  profitable 
and  secure,  you  reach  the  man  who  is  sometimes  called 
"the  big  boss."  And  yet  because  he  is  "the  big  boss" 
it  does  not  follow  that  he  is  a  mere  capitalist. 

In  the  division  of  humanity  into  "Labor"  and 
"Capital"  you  may  not  fairly  include  the  manufac- 
turer with  "capitalists." 

A  manufacturer  works.  He  has  a  part  in  the  pro- 
duction of  useful  commodities.     He  earns  his  bread. 

But  a  capitalist  doesn't  work  at  all.  In  a  false 
phrase,  "his  money  works  for  him."  Having  control 
of  capital  which  he  did  nothing  to  acquire  he  uses  it  to 


90 


LABOR   AND   CAPITAL      ARE   FALSE   TERMS 

skim  a  heavy  tax  off  other  men's  product.  When  yon 
get  to  these  idlers  who  gamble  in  money,  you  have 
reached  the  "capitalist,"  but  in  all  fairness  we  ought 
to  be  careful  upon  whom  we  place  that  name. 

Someone  asked  recently  who  came  first,  the  work- 
man or  the  capitalist?  The  questioner  meant  who 
came  first,  the  workman  or  the  manager,  the  laborer 
or  the  inventor? 

In  the  simple  work  of  the  early  man  which  con- 
sisted entirely  in  self-support  all  were  equal,  but  the 
world  was  not  the  comfortable  civilized  sphere  which 
we  have  today. 

In  the  work  of  industry,  that  is,  the  creation  of 
work  for  others  by  which  articles  of  use  might  be 
made  for  all,  the  man  with  the  idea  came  first.  In- 
dustry did  not  begin  spontaneously.  Someone  first 
had  an  idea.  Most  of  the  men  who  had  the  idea  which 
set  others  to  work,  did  not  have  the  money.  They 
were  not  "capitalists"  in  the  modern  sense.  Their 
capital  was  in  their  idea.  If  they  gained  money  af- 
terward, they  gained  it  by  what  people  paid  for  the 
use  of  their  idea  in  usable  form.  Mere  capitalists, 
men  who  possess  money  and  nothing  else,  men  who 
use  their  control  of  money  to  escape  useful  work — this 
class  of  "capitalists""  never  has  ideas  that  help  the 
world.     It  schemes  to  fatten  on  other  men's  ideas. 

Sometimes  the  man  with  an  idea  makes  money, 
sometimes  he  doesn't.  Our  history  is  full  of  the  tales 
of  men  who  really  discovered  the  idea  and  failed  to 
profit  by  it.  lliey  were  not  managers.  Some  "capi- 
talist" took  it  and  made  money  out  of  it. 

But  when  the  man  with  an  idea  combines  man- 
aging ability  with  it,  and  his  idea  fills  a  felt  want  in 
the  world,  he  makes  money.  He  doesn't  make  it  alone, 
of  course ;  everyone  who  works  with  him  helps  him. 

The  {[uestion  then  conies :  Does  he  make  too 
nmch?  Docs  he  take  too  large  a  share  for  liimsclf? 
Is  he  overpaid  for  what  he  has  contributed? 

Well,  he  usually  begins  in  a  very  small  way.  A 
business  that  now  employs  over  50,000  men  began 
less  than  fifteen  years  ago  with  20  nien.  The  idea 
proved  useful  and  acceptable  to  the  public,  and  busi- 

91 


FORD    IDEALS 


ness  grew.  If  whatever  that  idea  made  in  money  had 
been  equally  distributed  every  Saturday  night  between 
the  proprietor  and  the  20  men  then  employed,  do  you 
suppose  the  business  would  ever  have  had  a  surplus 
on  which  to  grow  to  its  present  dimensions,  giving 
employment  under  far  better  conditions  and  better 
pay  to  50,000  men  than  the  first  20  men  enjoyed? 

No.  Things  being  as  they  are,  the  business  might 
have  lived  and  supported  20  men.  But  the  chances 
are  it  would  have  died,  and  the  idea  would  have  been 
seized  and  exploited  by  others  whose  sole  object  would 
have  been  profits  and  not  service  and  industrial  im- 
provement. 

Capital  that  a  business  makes  for  itself,  that  is 
employed  to  expand  the  workman's  opportvmity  and 
increase  his  comfort  and  prosperity,  and  that  is  used 
to  give  more  and  more,  and  ever  more  men  work,  at 
the  same  time  reducing  the  cost  of  service  to  the  pub- 
lic— that  sort  of  capital,  even  though  it  be  under  single 
control,  is  not  a  menace  to  humanity.  It  is  a  working 
surplus  held  in  trust  and  daily  use  for  the  benefit  of 
all. 

To  regard  such  surplus  as  a  personal  reward  is 
hardly  possible  to  the  intelligent  and  honest  possessor 
or  controller  of  it.  One  big  reason  stands  in  the  way 
of  any  man  regarding  such  sur])lus  as  his  own,  namely, 
that  he  himself  did  not  make  it  all.  It  is  the  joint 
product  of  his  whole  organization.  The  manufac- 
turer's idea  may  have  released  all  the  energy  and  di- 
rected it,  but  certainly  it  did  not  supply  it.  Every 
workman,  whatever  his  part,  was  a  partner  in  the 
creation   of   it. 

And  yet  no  business  can  ])ossibly  be  considered 
only  with  reference  to  today  and  to  the  individuals 
engaged  in  it.  I'o  liquidate  every  day  or  every  week 
or  every  year  would  be  the  death  of  business  ;  it  would 
prevent  expansion,  it  would  subject  the  business  to 
the  mercy  of  every  up  or  down  of  conditions.  This 
means,  of  course,  that  it  would  constantly  jeo])ardize 
every  job  involved  in  the  business. 

The  best  wages  ought  to  be  paid.  A  proper  living 
ought  to  be  assured  ever}-  j)articipant  in  the  business, 

92 


LABOR    AND   CAPITAL      ARE   FALSE   TERMS 

no  matter  what  his  part.  But  for  the  sake  of  that 
business'  abihty  to  support  those  who  work  in  it,  a 
surplus  ought  to  be  held  somewhere  for  the  business' 
benefit.  And  that  is  the  only  relation  the  honest  man- 
ufacturer has  with  the  surplus  profits  which  his  idea 
made  possible. 

Ultimately  it  does  not  matter  where  this  surplus  is 
held  nor  who  controls  it ;  it  is  its  use  that  matters. 

Capital  that  is  not  constantly  creating  more  and 
better  jobs  is  more  useless  than  sand. 

Capital  that  is  not  constantly  making  the  condi- 
tions of  daily  labor  better  and  the  reward  of  daily 
labor  more  just,  is  not  fulfilling  its  highest  function. 

The  highest  use  of  capital  is  not  to  make  more 
money,  but  to  make  money  do  more  service  for  the 
betterment  of  life.  Unless  we  in  our  industries  are 
helping  to  solve  the  social  problem,  we  are  not  doing 
our  principal  work. 


The  Right  of  a  Man  to  His  Work 


THE  Rights  of  Man!  It  has  been  the  battle  cry 
of  progress  for  generations.  But  what  are  the 
rights  of  man?  What  determines  them?  And  who 
guarantees  them?  We  talk  quite  glibly  about  hu- 
man rights  without  stopping  to  consider  whether  they 
are  really  rights  or  not,  and  if  they  are,  how  they 
came  to  be. 

It  is  one  thing  to  claim  a  certain  right.  It  is  an- 
other thing  to  have  the  comniunity  recognise  your 
claim  as  a  right.  And  it  is  still  quite  another  thing  to 
have  that  recognized  claim  acknowledged  in  such  a 
way  that  you  can  avail  yourself   of   it. 

Human  rights  were  not  always  what  they  are 
today. 

With  the  organization  of  society,  the  number  of 
human  rights  tends  to  increase. 

The  reason  for  this  doubtless  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  when  you  organize  human  society  you  do  it  by 
regulating  everybody  connected  with  it.  You  cut  off 
certain  elements  of  freedom  here  and  there.  You  do 
this,  of  course,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  trespass 
on  the  freedom  of  all  the  people.  Civilization  is 
restraint. 

But  in  doing  this  work  of  restraining  the  wild  and 
reckless  tendencies  of  men,  you  balance  it  by  defining 
certain  Rights  which  they  keep.  You  cannot  define 
your  own  rights  without  defining  the  other  man's,  too. 

When  government  is  set  up.  taxation  goes  with  it. 
But  the  right  of  taxation  on  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ment involves  the  right  of  representation  on  the  part 
of  the  man  who  pays  the  taxes. 

That  in  turn  involves  his  equal  participation  in  the 
benefits  which  the  tax  money  purchases. 

Thus  Civil  Rights  grow.  They  become  by  demand 
"equal  rights,"  for  the  only  way  to  keep  one  man's 
right  from  trespassing  on  another's,  is  to  keep  both 
rights  eciual.     And  that  is  the  essence  of  democracy. 


THE  RIGHT  OF  A  MAN  TO   HIS   WORK 

Here  in  America  we  have  long  been  proud  to  say  that 
we  believe  in  "equal  rights  before  the  law"  for  all 
men.  Whether  we  really  achieve  that  desirable  con- 
dition is  another  question. 

But  Civil  Rights  do  not  exhaust  human  rights. 
Our  rights  as  citizens  are  a  small  part  of  our  real 
rights  as  human  beings. 

To  sum  up  the  list  of  Rights  claimed  for  people 
today  would  make  a  list  longer  than  this  page.  It 
runs  all  the  way  from  the  right  to  be  well  born,  to  the 
right  to  be  fairly  judged  when  life  is  done,  and  it  in- 
cludes all  that  goes  between.  If  we  were  only  as  keen 
about  our  duties  as  we  are  about  our  rights,  this 
would  be  a  fine  old  world. 

The  Rights  of  which  we  hear  most  today  are  those 
which  concern  men's  life  in  Industry. 

Now  when  men  lived  on  the  land  and  got  their 
living  by  farming,  that  mode  of  industry  gave  rise  to 
certain  rights— land  rights,  riparian  rights,  road  rights 
and  the  rest. 

And  so  when  men  began  to  organize  themselves  in 
modern  industrial  work,  the  new  form  of  life  brought 
its  rights  along  with  it  too — they  grew  out  of  the  cir- 
cumstances ;  they  grew  out  of  the  human  conscience 
as  it  considered  the  balance  of  equity  between  man 
and  man. 

Some  of  these  rights  we  have  discussed  in  this  col- 
umn at  one  time  or  another,  but  there  is  one  which 
is  paramount,  which  precedes  and  conditions  all  the 
rest. 

It  is  The  Right  To  Work. 

Years  ago,  when  anyone  could  get  a  plot  of  land 
and  support  himself,  besides  adding  a  little  to  the 
surplus  of  the  world,  they  used  to  preach  The  Duty 
of  Working. 

There  is  not  much  chance  for  that  kind  of  preach- 
ing nowadays.  We  are  more  accustomed  to  the  sight 
of  men  hunting  for  work  than  to  the  spectacle  of  men 
trying  to  escape  work. 

Among  the  new  industrial  rights,  llien.  is  this — 
The   Right   of   The    Alan   to   A    job. 

-As  loni?  as  we  have  reorganized  society  on  an  in- 


FORD    IDEALS 

dustrial  basis,  we  have  got  to  see  that  our  industries 
offer  a  place  to  every  worker  to  earn  his  living. 

That  is  primary  humanity.  You  may  thresh  around 
it  for  a  hundred  years,  but  it  will  still  be  facing  you 
in  the  end. 

It  would  not  do  much  good  to  discuss  the  theory 
of  this.  It  is  very  simple.  Every  human  being  has 
the  Right  to  live  in  self-respect.  It  is  the  collective 
duty  to  acknowledge  that  right  by  providing  for  it. 
In  a  natural  state  of  society  it  would  take  care  of 
itself.  As  matters  are  now,  it  must  be  deliberately 
provided  for. 

Now,  assuming  that  there  are  more  men  than 
there  is  work,  what  are  we  to  do  in  order  to  protect 
men  in  The  Right  To  A  Job. 

A  number  of  ways  suggest  themselves  at  once.  We 
shall  do  scarcely  more  than  name  them. 

The  work  day  might  be  shortened,  thus  curtailing 
the  output  of  a  worker  and  forcing  the  hiring  of  an- 
other man  to  keep  up  the  output.  The  disadvantage 
of  this  plan,  of  course,  is  that  it  cannot  be  extended 
indefinitely.  Let  us  agree  that  good  management 
could  reduce  the  work  day  to  a  point  where  the  phys- 
ical health  of  the  worker  would  be  benefited  and  the 
strength  of  the  business  not  injured — yet,  even  so,  it 
is  doubtful  if  this  alone  would  guarantee  anyone  a 
job. 

Again :  child  labor  might  be  diminished  and  its 
place  supplied  with  adults.  Without  doubt  the  em- 
ployment of  children  has  had  the  effect  of  keeping 
many  men  out  of  work.  We  have  seen  in  our  own 
country — although  it  is  quite  common  in  other  coun- 
tries— mere  children  in  competition  with  their  own 
parents  for  jobs.     That  is  a  most  shameful  condition. 

So  that  if  there  are  those  employed  who  by  right 
ought  to  be  in  school  or  in  the  home,  the  placing  of 
them  in  their  proper  spheres  would  release  a  large 
number  of  jobs  for  men  to  take. 

But  it  ought  to  be  evident  that  these  methods,  in- 
cluding farm  and  labor  colonies  and  other  suggested 
remedies,  only  touch  the  problem  in  spots. 

The  need  is  for  something  bigger  and  more  de- 
pendable.     These    other    improvements    ought    to    be 

96 


THE  RIGHT  OK  A    MAN   TO    HIS   WORK 

made  also,  of  course,  but  in  themselves  they  are  not 
sufficient  to  cure  the  whole  evil.  They  ought  to  be 
undertaken  on  grounds  of  simple  human  justice,  re- 
gardless of  whether  they  really  help  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  unemployment  or  not. 

We  have  to  begin  to  guarantee  our  national  pros- 
perity where  it  begins — with  the  mass  of  workers. 

We  have  got  to  be  just  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder 
first,  trusting  that  a  policy  of  justice  at  the  bottom 
will  result  in  justice  at  the  top  too.  But  we  ought  not 
stop  to  speculate :  we  ought  to  begin  to  be  just  at  the 
beginning  of  things,  regardless. 

This  is  not  asking  charity  for  Labor.  It  is  only 
asking  for  Labor  what  has  already  been  done  for 
Banks  and  Business — a  Method  to  realize  on  its 
assets. 

A  man  awakes  in  the  piorning.  His  chief  asset 
is  his  ability  to  perform  a  day's  work.  He  ought  to 
be  assured 'of  a  chance  to  realize  on  that  asset,  just 
as  the  business  man  was  assisted  to  realize  on  a  stock 
of  goods,  or  a  bank  on  a  stock  of  perfectly  good  notes. 

Neither  would  this  involve  a  policy  of  "making 
work" — giving  the  men  something  to  do  for  the  sake 
of  keeping  them  busy. 

With  the  advance  of  inventive  genius  and  with  the 
l)erfection  of  human  methods  of  business  management, 
more  and  more  jobs  are  going  to  be  created  and  the 
conditions  of  labor  are  going  to  be  increasingly  im- 
proved. Here  and  there  we  see  private  employers 
who  are  doing  their  full  part  to  reduce  the  problem  of 
uiK'mj)loyment,  and  they  are  not  doing  it  as  a  charity, 
but  because  a  busy  world  is  a  good  world  to  do  busi- 
ness in — it  is  a  buying  and  selling  world. 

P)Ut  the  (iovernment,  which  has  the  whole  country 
to  oversee,  has  mountains  of  work  that  it  ought  to  do 
loo.  1"he  United  .Stales  in  many  ])laces  resembles  an 
unkempt,  undeveloped  farm. 

There  are  great  campaigns  of  work  needed  be- 
tore  our  country  can  compare  with  any  lun'opean 
country  in  the  utilization  of  its  advantages  and  re- 
som"ces. 

We  have  arid  lands  to  irrigate,  deserts  to  fertilize, 
water    jjowit    to    (le\-elo]).    national     road    svstems    to 


FORD    IDEALS 

build,  railroad  and  other  transportation  systems  to 
double  and  triple  to  take  care  of  our  needs;  we  have 
canals  to  build  and  reforestation  projects  to  under- 
take— indeed,  there  is  no  end  to  the  NECESSARY 
and  URGENT  work  to  be  done. 

•If  the  United  States  undertook  to  do  all  that  ought 
to  be  done,  it  would  drain  private  industry  of  its  man- 
power. 

A  Federal  Industrial  Reserve,  established  to  take 
up  the  slack  in  employment  would  be  a  great  step 
toward  protecting  in  this  country  the  Right  of  A  Man 
To  A  Job. 

There  are  those  who  claim  that  a  certain  propor- 
tion of  unemployed  men  is  desirable  from  the  in- 
dustrial standpoint.  A  crowd  of  men  clamoring  around 
the  factory  gates  for  jobs  helps  keep  the  men  inside 
steady  and  helps  keep  wages  down,  they  say. 

That  is  a  detestable  philosophy.  It  is  cold  specu- 
lation in  flesh  and  blood  and  anxiety  and  hunger.  We 
don't  want  any  condition  that  is  dependent  on  un- 
em])loyment  for  its  steadiness. 

What  we  want  are  enough  jobs  to  go  around.  And 
just  as  there  was  enough  wealth  to  do  business,  though 
not  enough  money  until  the  Federal  Reserve  System 
got  to  work,  so  there  is  enough  work  for  all,  though  it 
is  not  as  yet  divided  into  jobs,  but  will  be  when  we 
tackle  it  in  a  big  national  way.  When  the  People, 
through  the  Government,  become  an  employer  on 
great  public  projects,  unemployment  will  become  a 
thing  of  the  past. 


OS 


The  Fear  of  Change 


VOICES  on  every  side  are  counseling  us  to  fill  our- 
selves with  fear.  Wherever  you  go,  whatever  you 
read,  the  tones  of  calamity  are  strongly  emphasized. 
The  proper  aftermath  of  war  does  not  seem  to  be  a 
sense  of  relief  at  all,  nor  a  spirit  of  gratitude  for  the 
deliverance,  nor  yet  a  hopeful  view  of  the  future. 
Our  loudest  advisers  would  have  us  believe  that  the 
otily  proper  feeling  is  one  of  dread  for  the  dire  events 
that  are  expected  to  follow. 

All  this  is  very  strange  when  you  stop  to  consider 
it,  because  it  is  not  so  many  months  ago  when  any- 
one who  forecasted  the  future  in  other  than  rosy  hues 
was  denounced  as  a  "calamity  howler." 

Today,  however,  Jeremiah  is  chief  among  the 
prophets. 

And  when  this  occurs,  it  is  a  sign. 

No  stronger  sign  could  be  given  that  something  has 
been  wrong  and  still  is  wrong  in  America  than  the 
readiness  (jf  a  certain  class  to  accept  this  counsel  of 
fear. 

The  man  whom  \()u  can  reduce  to  a  slate  of  fear 
by  threats  of  retribution,  is  not  reduced  to  such  a 
state  by  your  words,  but  bv  the  corroboration  of  a 
guilty  conscience  within  him. 

One  is  justified  by  human  experience  in  gauging 
the  degree  of  guilt  by  the  readiness  of  the  fear.  When 
a  spokesman  arises  and  says,  "N'es,  we  have  a  great 
deal  to  fear."  it  is  jjrobabK'  true  tluU  he  and  those 
he  represeiUs  rt'ally  lia\'e  much  to  fear.  F>ut  it  does 
not   tollow  that  eversone  has. 

riiose  whose  conscience  is  clear,  who  know  that 
they  have  done  tlieir  dnlv  and  have  not  denied  theii 
obligations  to  humanity,  who  ha\-e  not  thought  them- 
selves better  or  niore  deserving  than  their  ftdlow- 
creatures-  these  do  not  lia\'e  to  take  refuge  in  fears. 
They  are  tree  to  se;in  the  future  and  to  greet  what- 
e\er  it  nia\  haw  in  store. 


FORD    IDEALS 


The  accusing  conscience,  the  life  that  knows  it 
has  ignored  the  rights  of  others,  is  Fear's  ally. 

Well,  what  about  the  mysterious  future?  What 
are  its  portents  ?  What  is  the  outlook  ?  False  prophets 
always  prophesy  peace,  and  the  reason  their  prophecy 
is  false  is  that  there  never  is  peace  in  the  way  they 
mean  it. 

So,  if  this  page  were  to  begin  on  the  note  of 
"Peace,  peace,"  you  could  at  once  set  it  down  as  false. 
As  long  as  there  is  Hfe  there  is  Change.  The  peace 
of  stagnation  is  an  attribute  of  death. 

That,  therefore,  is  one  element  we  may  expect  in 
the  future — the  element  of  Change. 

Whatever  we  may  regret  about  it,  the  old  world 
as  we  knew  it  can  never  come  baC'k.  It  can  never  be 
the  same  again.  Even  if  every  human  being  on  the 
globe  devoted  himself  to  reconstructing  the  old  world 
as  it  was,  it  could  not  be  done. 

And  the  reason  for  this  is  that  we  ourselves  have 
changed.  W^e  are  not  what  we  were.  We  can  never 
be  the  same  again.  Something  has  passed  over  us 
and  upon  us  that  has  rendered  us  different.  We  have 
changed  our  angle  of  view.  That  which  formerly 
seemed  all-important  now  occupies  a  lower  place,  and 
that  of  which  we  seldom  thought  has  been  made  the 
chief  interest  of  life.  The  world  has  really  been 
turned  upside  down  as  far  as  its  thinking  is  concerned. 

Of  course,  this  is  nothing  new.  It  has  always  hap- 
pened, though  not  always  so  suddenly  and  inclusively 
as  it  has  happened  now.  We  are  continually  changing 
and  life  is  always  changing  for  us  and  the  world  is 
changing  beneath  and  around  us — so  why  fear 
Change  ?       ^ 

And  yet  there  are  people  who  really  do  fear  it. 
These  are  the  people  who  are  falling  victims  to  the 
propaganda  of  Fear  today. 

To  shrink  from  a  new  situation  is,  in  ordinary 
times,  a  sign  of  weakness.  When  a  man  feels  that  he 
is  afraid  to  tackle  anything  out  of  the  ordinary  routine, 
when  circumstal^ce  throws  an  obstruction  in  his  way 
and  it  cows  him  instead  of  rousing  him,  then  he  has 
lost  his  zest   for  real  life. 

Life  is   just   one   unexpected  thing  after  another, 

100 


THK    FKAR    OF    CHANGE 


and  if  a  man  fails  to  appreciate  the  glory  of  the  un- 
expected, his  pulse  is  slowing  up.  It  is  Change  that 
keeps  men  alive,  just  as  it  is  the  flow  that  keeps  water 
pure. 

But  aside  from  the  fear  which  is  a  sign  of  weak- 
ness, there  is  another  fear  which  is  a  sign  of  selfish- 
ness. It  is  that  fear  which  has  clutched  a  whole  class 
in  America  today. 

We  have  been  pretty  calm  and  ea.sy-^oing  in 
America.  We  have  left  a  great  many  leaks  which 
shrewd  men  use  to  exploit  for  their  personal  gain. 
We  have  unregulated  power  which  unscrupulous  men 
use  to  entrench  themselves  at  the  expense  of  others. 

And  the  whole  posse  of  get-rich-quick  thieves,  and 
the  whole  clique  of  get-richer-still  bkmders,  and  the 
whole  class  of  those  who  fatten  on  the  productive 
thought  and  labor  of  others,  are  the  ones  who  fear 
the  specter  of  Change  as  it  were  an  accusing  spirit. 

And  in  their  case  impending  Change  is  an  ac- 
cusing spirit,  f^'or  what  can  be  changed  to  anyone's 
hurt  is  wrong  to  begin  with.  The  right  system  cannot 
be  changed.  Even  an  improvement  of  the  right  sys- 
tem injures  no  one,  but  helps  all.  But  if  Change 
strikes  the  grafts  of  the  idle  rich  class  and  hurts 
them,  it  is  a  i)roof  that  their  system  is  wrong  and 
harmful  to  others. 

Anyone  who  has  been  living  bv  his  ])ro(luctive 
thought  and  labor,  who  has  been  mindful  to  bring 
his  fellow-men  along  with  him,  who  has  never  thought 
in  terms  of  his  ov.n  wealth  and  glory  but  always  in 
terms  of  the  general  good  and  prosperity,  such  a  one 
has  nothing  to  fear  from  Change.  He  usually  fore- 
sees it  and  meets  it  half  way.     It  is  his  friend  and  ally. 

Why  should  it  be  so  hard  to  get  this  thought  into 
men's  minds,  that  Change  can  only  hit  those  matters 
which  ought  lo  be  changcfl  for  the  better? 

If  our  rich  idlers  are  made  to  work  for  their  bread 
and  contribute  something  beside  their  ornameiUal 
presence  to  the  general  good,  will  that  be  a  disastrous 
change  ? 

It  those  who  live  by  dickering  instead  of  b\-  labor- 
ing are  made  to  get  down  to  business  and  eai'ii  their 
living,  will  that  be  a  change  to  be  feared? 


FORD    IDEALS 


If  the  whole  mass  of  human  spiders,  financial, 
professional  and  social,  are  hindered  from  spinning 
their  webs  to  catch  hard-working  human  flies  and 
their  earnings,  is  that  a  change  to  be  dreaded? 

If  the  dishonest,  shrewd,  scheming,  gambling, 
double-crossing  tribe  of  shirkers  are  put  out  of  their 
feathered  nests  and  made  to  pay  their  labor  for  their 
living,  will  such  a  thing  mean  "the  end  of  civilization" 
as  some  of  the  fear-peddlers  tell  us? 

Instead  of  bringing  "the  end  of  civilization,"  they 
will  constitute  a  very  promising  beginning  along  sadly 
neglected  lines. 

It  is  a  pretty  safe  method  to  follow,  when  you 
hear  a  man  raving  about  the  danger  there  is  to  Civ- 
ilization at  the  present  moment,  to  ask  him,  "Which 
of  your  grafts  is  in  danger?" 

You  don't  see  people  who  do  their  daily  work 
honestly  and  well  going  about  and  spreading  this  fear. 

You  don't  hear  of  the  farmers  calling  mass-meet- 
ings and  warning  each  other  to  look  out,  that  soine- 
thing  is  going  to  happen  ! 

Why  ?  Because  these  people  are  doing  their  duty 
to  mankind.  They  are  producing  their  living.  They 
are  not  living  off  other  people.  Their  conscience 
doesn't   accuse   them. 

This  is  very  significant.  It  is  so  significant  that 
3'ou  had  belter  consider  it  a  moment. 

The  fear-peddlers  of  the  present  hour  are  the  priv- 
ileged class,  tiie  big  grafter  class,  and  its  servants^ — - 
and  these  servants  are  the  reactionary  politicians,  and 
the  newspapers  which  seem  to  believe  that  all  Change 
and  improvement  is  of  the  devil. 

Observe  and  see  if  this  is  not  true.  Watch  the 
"voices  of  warning"  and  see  if  they  do  not  issue  from 
those  classes  where  the  Guilty  Conscience  would 
natm-ally  become  most  active  in  times  of  threatened 
Change. 

Surveying  the  disorder  in  Europe,  its  cause  would 
a])pear  to  be  the  determination  of  the  privileged 
classes  that  the  world  shall  go  on  in  the  old  way,  and 
the  utter  impossibility  of  the  world  going  on  in  the 
old  \\a\'.  I-"or  we  must  remember  that  when  kings 
were  dethroned,  Private  Privilege  was  not  dethroned. 

102 


THE  FEAR   OK   CHANGE 

Kingship  was  always  built  upon  the  foundation  of 
class  privilege,  and  it  was  possible  for  the  head  to 
abdicate  without  breaking  up  the  system.  Kings  were 
useful  to  private  privilege  l)ccause  they  helped  keep 
the  people's  respect  for  high  graft.  But  Privilege 
can  get  along  without  kings  if  it  can  only  control  the 
people  by  other  means.  Here  in  the  United  States  we 
have  never  had  a  king,  yet  we  have  a  privileged  aris- 
tocracy which  can  be  as  sharply  defined  as  the  nobility 
of  England  or  the  Junkers  of  Germany. 

So,  unless  these  privileged  classes  of  yesterday 
can  start  again  on  yesterday's  plan,  they  will  not  start 
at  all,  and  that  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  disorder  of 
Europe.  They  are  trying  to  hold  back  the  tide  of 
progress,  which  is  impossible. 

luu'ope  has  been  the  scene  of  endless  war  sim])ly 
because  it  has  distrusted  and  feared  Change. 

The  danger  of  Europe  today  is  not  that  I'rogrcss 
is  knocking  at  her  door,  l)Ut  that  she  will  fear  to  oj)en 
the  door,  and  will  come  to  her  senses  only  when  the 
door  is  broken  down.  Progress  will  pass,  even  though 
it  nnist  baiter  down  the  barricades  of  selfishness  and 
prejudice.  But  it  would  rather  pass  peacefully  through 
the  doorways  of  those  who  trust  and  welcome  it. 

Two  thousand  years  of  civilization  have  not  taught 
certain  parts  of  Europe  the  primary  lesson  that  no 
nation  or  system  is  stronger  than  the  strength  and 
privilege  of  its  huml)lest  member. 

Things  were  coming  to  an  end  in  luu'Ojie  even  if 
the  war  had  not  intervened.  When  men  deliberately 
invent  a  ])hilosophy,  ])rint  it  in  books  and  teach  it  in 
schools,  which  ])reten(ls  to  ])rove  that  certain  cla^^ses 
are  the  destined  slaves  of  other  classi's.  the  (pieslioii  of 
])rivilege  being  a  matter  of  caste  or  birth,  it  was  sig- 
tiiticant  that  the  end  was  near.  I'Or.no  sooner  do  vou 
formulate  an  erroneous  philosoplu'  than  xou  inform 
the  world  where  io  strike,  and  it  strikes. 

The  teaching  that  any  class  is  goo(l  cnongli  to  rule 
another  class  is  the  old  tlieor\-  of  the  divine  riglu  of 
kings  revami)e(l  and  applied  to  a  privileged  ari>tocrac\'. 

\\  ho  is  so  looli>Ii  a>  lo  belie\e  that  the  people  ol 
lunt)pe.  having  rid  themsehes  of  autocrat^,  are  going 

1 1)  J 


FORD     IDEALS 


to  turn  around  and  submit  to  the  same  misuse  from 
aristocrats? 

"But,"  say  some  of  those  aristocrats  with  an  ex- 
pression that  would  be  comical  were  it  not  so  pitiable, 
"But,  if  this  new  thing  comes,  then  my  privileges  and 
my  vast  wealth  and  lands  disappear !" 

And  why  not?  Why  should  not  land  be  put  to 
productive  use?  Why  should  not  wealth  minister  to 
the  good  of  all  the  people  instead  of  the  luxurious 
tastes  of  the  few? 

The  land  cannot  be  destroyed,  neither  can  the 
wealth.  It  is  just  a  taking  of  the  useless  thing  and 
making  it  useful.     Surely  that  is  civilized  and  right ! 

There  are  two  evils  we  want  to  abolish  from  our 
world :  one  of  them  is  Poverty,  the  other  is  Privilege. 
Now,  how  can  we  abolish  Poverty?  You  do  not  ac- 
complish it  by  destroying  the  poor.  You  accomplish 
it  by  destroying  the  causes  of  Poverty. 

Then  how  can  we  abolish  Privilege?  You  do  not 
do  it  by  standing  the  privileged  class  against  stone 
walls.  You  accomplish  it  by  abolishing  the  causes  of 
Privilege.  Privilege  has  just  as  definite  causes  as 
Poverty,  and  they  are  just  as  easily  controlled — just 
as  easily. 

No  one  will  be  hurt  in  the  good  Changes  that  may 
be  in  store  for  this  world.     Not  at  all. 

Even  the  idle  nobleman  wdio  loses  his  luxury  is 
not  going  to  be  hvirt^ — he  will  be  a  better  man  with- 
out his  idleness,  his  useless  luxury  and  his  expensive 
vices. 

They  say  that  some  of  the  princes  of  Europe  are 
going  into  business,  becoming  clerks  and  salesmen 
and  farmers.  \Yc\\,  have  they  been  harmed?  Not  at 
all.  They  are  more  princely  now  than  they  ever  were 
with  the  baubles  of  rank  dangling  from  their  narrow 
chests. 

Get  the  gambling  aristocrats  and  the  selfish  capi- 
talists to  work  for  a  year,  and  they  would  never  go 
back  to  the  old  life.  They  will  come  round  and  thank 
the  influences  that  made  them  get  out  and  hustle  and 
become  of  some  use. 

If  the  poor  will  thank  you  for  abolishing  Poverty, 


THK   FKAR   OF   CHAXGK 

the  useless  rich  will  thank  you  for  abolishing  Privilege. 

Because  a  good  Change  works  good  all  round. 

That  is  why  a  man  with  a  clear  conscience  need 
never  fear  a  Progressive  Change.  If  he  is  a  worker 
now,  he  will  be  needed  in  the  world  whatever  happens. 

Nothing  will  ever  happen  that  will  dethrone  the 
worker.  He  is  the  one  class  whose  place  is  secure 
throughout  all  time.  The  man  who  produces  by  his 
thought  or  his  labor  will  always  be  in  request  and  in 
favor.  He  constitutes  the  continuing  class — he  is  the 
hold-over  through  every  change. 

That  is  why  the  workers  are  not  afraid. 

If  a  moral  were  needed,  this  might  do:  to  escape 
fear  and  a  guilty  conscience,  become  a  worker.  And 
this  applies  very  directly  to  the  wealthy  idler  whose 
fears  are  very  lively  just  now. 


How  Much  Domestic  Trouble 
Is  Preventable? 


IT  IS  impossible  to  state  the  exact  proportion  of  the 
world's  trouble  which  is  preventable,  but  we  are 
well  within  the  limit  when  we  say  that  it  approxi- 
mates 75  per  cent.  We  shall  never  be  in  a  position 
accurately  to  appraise  mankind's  earthly  life  until  we 
have  exhausted  our  last  experiment  for  that  life's 
betterment. 

Most  of  the  trouble  that  man  is  heir  to,  except 
old  age  and  death,  is  preventable ;  a  vast  amount  of 
it  is  curable  even  after  it  occurs;  and,  taking  life  on 
its  ])ractical  side,  it  could  be  made  much  smoother 
than  it  is. 

In  excei)ting  old  age  and  death  as  troubles  which 
are  incmable,  it  is  not  intended  to  adopt  a  hopeless  at- 
titude toward  them.  Old  age  is  not  a  trouble,  rightly 
speaking.  It  ought  to  be  in  many  respects  a  man's 
happiest  period  of  life — its  golden  sunset.  And  it 
would  be  this  if  only  other  conditions  were  right.  It 
is  when  old  age  comes  before  its  time  as  the  result  of 
hard  conditions  or  \vrong  methods  of  living,  or  when 
it  comes  without  any  sunset  glow,  that  it  becomes  a 
burden  and  a  trouble. 

As  for  death — in  the  economy  of  nature  it  is  one 
of  the  arrangements  that  make  for  progress.  It  lets 
the  generations  come  on.  It  allows  new  ideas  to  sweep 
up  on  the  shores  of  the  world.  Perhaps  it  also  gives 
great  assistance  to  the  human  personality  in  its  own 
development. 

Hut  even  as  inevitable  as  death  now  is,  inevitable  as 
])erliaps  it  may  remain  throughout  luunan  history, 
there  is  no  need  of  its  being  the  trouble  we  experience. 
Ripe  deaths  are  not  grievous  ;  it  is  oiilv  the  untimely 
ones  that  leave  scars  upon  our  lives.  When  the  voung 
man  dies  with  his  futiu'e  unfulfilled  ;  when  the  \oung 
father  dies  leaving  his   wife  and  brood  of   children; 

106 


HOW    MUCH    DOMESTIC    TROUBLK    IS    I'KtVENTABLE .'' 

when  the  strong  men  of  the  world  drop  otT  long  be- 
fore their  natural  time  and  from  causes  that  were 
clearly  preventable,  then  death  becomes  unnatural — 
it  becomes  a  great  trouble. 

So  that  even  when  we  are  compelled  to  make  ex- 
ceptions of  old  age  and  death  from  the  list  of  pre- 
ventable troubles,  there  is  a  sense  in  which  the  injury 
they  do  is  also  preventable.  When  old  age  comes  in 
its  time,  when  death  comes  as  the  harvest  comes,  at 
the  ripe  end  of  a  fruitful  life,  it  is  natural,  often  it  is 
even  beautiful,  and  the  wounds  thus  made  are  not  the 
unnatural  ones  which  are  made  by  untimely  passings 
and  breakdowns. 

Now,  if  these  two  great  experiences  can  be  so  regu- 
lated as  to  lose  their  terror  and  hurt,  what  is  there 
which  we  cannot  say  about  the  lesser  troubles  which 
harass  us? 

Take  domestic  trouble,  for  example — perhaps  one 
of  the  bitterest  of  troubles  which  alHict  mankind  to- 
day. 

It  is  impossible  for  the  man  who  is  wrapped  up  in 
his  own  hap[)iness  and  who  has  no  means  of  knowing 
what  is  the  exact  condition  among  his  fellow  men,  to 
realize  just  liow  much  domestic  trouble  exists  in  the 
world,  (jel  a  few  thousand  men  together  and  the 
bulk  of  such  trouble,  past  or  present,  which  they  rep- 
resent is  really  appalling. 

And  yet  it  is  mostly  preventable.  Perhaps  it  is 
fair  to  say  thai  it  is  all  preventable.  A  little  wisdom 
exercised  l)eforchand,  a  little  forbearance  afterward, 
would  be  the  cure  of  most  domestic  difficulties. 

Most  people  marry  in  the  delusion  that  they  are 
marrying  Perfection.  ()f  course  thev  are  not.  But 
at  least  they  are  marrying  a  possibility  of  happiness. 

When  two  peoj)le  believe  that  they  think  enough 
of  each  other  to  marry,  they  possess  therein  a  possil)l«' 
foundaticju  for  future  happiness  no  matter  how  little 
romance  tlu-y  may  have  in  their  lives. 

Domestic  hai)piness  is  not  so  nnich  a  matter  of 
I.ove  as  ol  (iood  .Sense.  Manv  peoj)le  who  claim  to 
lo\e  each  other,  are  unhappv  togelht'r.  Man\-  peojile 
who  sniilt'  at  tlie  mention  ol  love  nvv  \ery  hai)])\'  to- 
gether, simply  l)ecaiise  they  have  good  common  sense. 

107 


FORD    IDEALS 


Those  who  say  it  is  impossible  to  base  domestic 
happiness  on  good  sense,  mutual  forbearance  and 
mutual  respect  are  drawing  their  conclusions  from 
novels  instead  of  life. 

Many  domestic  disasters  could  be  prevented  by  a 
knowledge  of  the  course  which  domestic  life  often 
takes.  Two  young  people  marry — as  it  is  right  they 
should,  and,  other  circumstances  being  favorable  and 
equal,  they  can  hardly  marry  too  young — and  they 
fancy  they  will  never,  never  change.  Sometimes  they 
even  swear  to  each  other  that  they  will  never  change. 

But,  they  do.  They  cannot  help  it.  They  change 
because  they  grow.  He  becomes  more  of  a  man,  and 
she  more  of  a  woman.  He  becomes  more  critical — 
not  necessarily  in  his  manner,  but  in  his  insight ;  she 
opens  her  eyes  also.  If  the  truth  were  told  it  is  prob- 
ably the  woman  who  comes  to  the  balanced  view  of 
matters  first. 

Dreams  cannot  last  forever,  and  it  would  be  a  pity 
if  they  should.     For  the  realities  are  better. 

But  the  passing  of  the  dream  is  a  dangerous  period, 
for  it  tends  to  make  one  or  the  other,  sometimes  both, 
to  feel  that  they  have  been  tricked. 

However,  they  have  not  been  tricked.  A  hundred 
to  one  they  have  not  married  unwisely.  They  are 
simply  going  through  a  normal  experience — a  moult- 
ing period,  as  it  were. 

But  there  is  the  first  danger,  the  suspicion  that 
they  have  married  unwisely. 

The  second  danger  is  more  to  be  feared,  namely, 
the  false  belief  that  the  first  part  of  the  married  life 
is  the  best,  and  that  if  that  part  disappoints,  there  is 
nothing  but  misery  waiting  in  the  future. 

Now  the  fact  is  that  the  first  part  of  marriage  is 
not  the  best.  It  seems  to  be  so  at  the  time ;  even  out- 
side beholders  are  betrayed  into  thinking  it  so ;  but  it 
is  not.  It  may  be  more  ecstatic,  more  spring-like,  more 
ruled  by  the  stormier  emotions  of  joy. 

But  after  all,  there  is  no  happiness  like  that  of 
Darby  and  Joan  at  their  own  firesides  many,  many 
years  after — she  not  a  bit  deluded  about  him  but 
knowing  him  to  be  a  true  man,  and  he  not  a  bit 
deluded  about  her  but  knowing  her  to  be  a  true  woman, 

108 


HOW    MUCH    DOMKSTIC    TUOUBl.K    IS    I'KKVKNTABI.E? 

and  both  loving  each  other  more  deeply  than  they  ever 
did  before,  but  perhaps  not  saying  so. 

It  should  be  incorporated  into  our  marriage  cere- 
monies, so  that  young  folks  would  not  be  deluded 
when  it  arrives,  that  a  time  of  change  will  come  when 
the  fresh  young  affection  will  begin  to  make  room  for 
something  deeper  and  more  enduring. 

It  should  be  impressed  upon  young  men  and  women 
that  it  is  this  latter  time  that  they  are  really  playing 
for,  that  all  sorts  of  inconveniences  and  disappoint- 
ments in  the  readjustment  period  should  be  borne 
wisely  for  the  sake  of  the  better  understanding  and 
the  better  loyalty  which  is  to  come  in  later  years. 

In  business,  in  education,  in  every  other  line  of 
life  men  play  for  the  distant  prize.  In  marriage  the 
prize  is  to  be  loyally  understood  25  years  from  the 
wedding  day.     It  is  worth  everything  to  achieve  that. 

If  this  second  danger,  the  danger  of  thinking  the 
first  part  the  best,  can  be  avoided,  the  course  of  do- 
mestic life  is  usually  safe. 

All  this,  however,  takes  no  account  of  those  far 
too  many  homes  which  have  snagged  on  both  rocks. 
Because  husband  and  wife  think  that  the  fading  of 
the  early  glamour  is  i)roof  of  their  having  made  a 
mistake,  and  because  they  mistakenly  think  that  the 
end  must  necessarily  be  grayer  and  gloomier  than  the 
beginning,  there  is  very,  very  much  bitterness  in  the 
world. 

There  is  hardly  any  bitterness  one  can  conceive  that 
approaches  the  bitterness  of  a  married  couple  who 
fancy  they  have  made  a  mistake. 

That  is  why  our  divorce  courts  are  so  busy. 

But  observe  this:  There  arc  more  mistaken  di- 
vorces than   there  are  mistaken   marriages. 

We  don't  need  divorce  courts  in  this  country  half 
so  much  as  we  need  Courts  of  Exj)lanation  and  Courts 
of  Reconciliation  and  Courts  of   Understanding. 

\\hen  you  have  divorced  two  people  you  have 
simply  turned  two  soiu'cd  souls  into  society  to  exer- 
cise a  souring  intiuence  on  others. 

'I'he  most  powerful  argunu'iit  in  favor  of  the  di- 
vorce grist  is  that  divorce  is  in  the  interest  of  the 
happiness  of   the  parties  concerned   and  not    society; 


FORD    IDEALS 

and  that  argument  is  completely  neutralized  by  the 
fact  that  the  happiness  of  those  parties  more  often 
consists  in  saving  their  marriage  than  in  destroying  it. 

A  certain  lawyer,  who  once  did  a  large  divorce 
business,  reformed,  and  for  the  purpose  of  making 
an  experiment  for  his  own  satisfaction  began  to  be 
the  friendly  adviser  of  all  who  applied  to  him  to  obtain 
divorces  for  them.  Their  application  opened  the  door 
for  his  inquiries,  and  he  found  himself  able  in  all  but 
a  negligible  percentage  of  cases  to  be  able  to  effect  a 
good  understanding  and  reconciliation. 

Our  more  progressive  communities  also  are  wak- 
ing up  to  the  folly  of  grinding  out  divorces  wholesale. 
They  are  now  establishing  intermediary  courts  where 
the  applicants  for  divorce  may  be  reasoned  with. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  this  ofificial  interven- 
tion for  the  sake  of  preventing  divorce  is  going  to  be 
fully  successful.  In  the  first  place,  the  relation  of 
adviser  in  such  matters  should  not  be  official  at  all, 
but  friendly.  In  the  second  place,  the  official  adviser 
is  seldom  the  type  of  person  who  knows  the  profounder 
phases  of  the  problem  with  which  he  deals.  In  the 
third  place,  the  people  whose  domestic  life  is  most 
worth  saving  are  the  very  i)eople  with  whom  even 
these  intermediary  institutions  would  hesitate  to  deal. 

Yet  it  is  true  that  husband  and  wife,  in  circum- 
stances of  domestic  bitterness,  seldom  possess  the 
means  of  coming  to  an  understanding  by  themselves. 
It  is  one  of  the  strange  aspects  of  this  difficulty  that 
people  who,  of  all  the  peoi)le  in  the  world,  are  closest 
to  each  other,  should  in  their  own  most  intimate  and 
important  concerns  l)e  farthest  apart.  But  so  it  is — 
and  it  is  far  from  being  the  only  ])aradox  that  human 
nature  presents. 

There  must  be  some  outside  influence  from  some- 
where to  enal)le  two  such  unfortunate  people  to  see 
their  true  condition.  And  even  this  influence  cannot 
be  effective  unless  the  man  and  woman  themselves 
adopt  a  spirit  of  sim|)licity  and  regard  themselves  as 
a  grown  boy  and  a  grown  girl  who  have  simply  lost 
their  way  in  one  of  life's  most  intricate  forests.  Only 
in  this  spirit  can  they  profit  In-  that  which  the  heart 


HOW    MUCH    DOMKSTIC   TROUBLE    IS    PRKVKXTABI.E .'' 

of  friendliness  and  the  wisdom  of  experience  would 
offer  them. 

If  it  could  be  made  clear  as  a  matter  of  educa- 
tion or  public  information  that  changes  of  temperature 
in  the  married  life  are  not  abnormal  but  perfectly 
natural ;  if  it  could  be  made  clear  that  the  day  of 
dreams  comes  to  an  end  and  the  day  of  grown-up 
reality  begins;  if  it  could  be  very  strongly  insisted  that 
team-work,  team-work  and  again  team-work  is  the 
chief  rule  of  domestic  success — absolute  conhdence, 
loyalty  and  exchange  of  views — many  domestic  sor- 
rows would  be  avoided. 

And  then  if  it  could  be  made  clear  to  everybody 
that  the  idea  of  divorce  being  an  escape  is  not  true — 
that  instead  of  being  an  escape,  divorce  is  more  likely 
to  be  a  leap  into  the  fire — that  would  be  of  vast  as- 
sistance also. 

If  the  testimony  of  divorcees  could  be  taken  on 
this  point,  the  revelation  would  be  stariling. 

Marriage  may  be  re])aired  ;  it  is  broken  at  great 
peril. 

Domestic  hai)i)iness  is  not  onh'  of  ]irivate  im- 
portance. It  is  the  world's  business,  the  future's  busi- 
ness, how  our  domestic  life  goes.  A  groal  many  un- 
desirable conditions  in  the  present  dav  can  be  traced 
by  the  untoward  domestic  conditions. 

Take  a  shop  which  is  manned  b\  men  of  unhaj)i)y 
home  life  and  compare  it  with  a  shop  m.anned  b\'  men 
whose  home  life  is  happy,  and  \i)\\  will  see  a  va^t  dif- 
ference in  tile  (pKilit\-  and  (|naiitit\  of  the  output. 
Moreover,  you  will  see  a  vast  (litferciice  in  the  wisdom 
and  reasonableness  with  which  the  men  manage  tlu'ir 
I)rivate  and  industrial  alTairs. 

The  business  man  who  is  in  domestic  diHicuh\. 
and  who  is  not  doing  an\lhiiig  to  I'lear  it  up,  is  up 
against  the  strongest  kind  of  compelilion  in  the  bu:^i- 
ness  man  whose  home  alTairs  are  well  adjusted.  It 
would  be  an  intci'esting  sociological  iii\  t">l  igalion  to 
compnti'  how  maii\'  business  failures  ha\r  Itecii  con- 
nected with  domestic  failures. 

A  man's  tirsl  success  ought  to  he  in  lii^  honu'. 

'1  here  are  no  two  men  and  wmDcn  on  the  iaee  oi 
the  glo])e,  no  mallei-  how    ninrli  the\'  uia\    pr.aU'  ahoul 


FORD    IDEALS 


"affinity,"  difference  of  temperament  and  "incompati- 
bility," who  could  not  together  make  a  most  excellent 
home,  one  that  would  attract  the  widest  and  worthiest 
circle  of   friends,  if  they  only  wanted  to. 

And  it  would  be  worth  doing.  It  would  be  the 
strongest  asset  either  of  them  could  have. 

There  is  a  baneful  connection  between  domestic 
failure  and  every  other  kind  of  failure. 

But  cheating  the  domestic  bogie  means  team-work. 
It  means  talking  it  out  together.  It  means  compromise 
here  and  there.  It  means  experiments,  now  with  her 
way  of  managing  matters,  now  with  his.  It  means 
"bear  and  forbear"  and  the  old-fashioned  rule  that 
only  one  shall  be  grouchy  at  a  time.  It  means  a  sense 
of  humor,  too,  for  the  oldest  and  wisest  of  us  are 
only  boys  and  girls. 

But  perhaps  it  means  first  and  deepest  of  all  the 
solid  fact  that  domestic  difficulty  is  absolutely  pre- 
ventable. It  is  not  fated.  It  is  not  necessary.  It  is 
not  inevitable.  It  is  preventable.  And  if  through  ig- 
norance or  ill-will  it  is  not  prevented,  then  it  is  very 
far  from  the  necessity  of  going  through  to  a  break-up, 
for  it  is  curable. 


112 


Farming — the  Food-Raising 
Industry 


Now  that  the  planting  time  has  come,  it  is  the 
duty  of  everyone  who  can  to  get  out  of  the 
factories  and  into  the  fields  to  raise  food.  Our  all- 
year  factory  life  is  a  mistake.  It  is  a  physical  as  well 
as  an  economic  mistake.  We  somehow  got  started 
on  the  wrong  track  when  the  industrial  system  was 
established  in  America.  Factory  and  farm  should 
have  been  organized  as  adjuncts  one  of  the  other,  and 
not  as  competitors.  Men  were  never  meant  to  stay 
within  walls  while  Nature  is  waking  the  Earth  to 
her  annual  labor  and  clothittg  the  visible  creation  with 
beauty  and  fertility. 

If  we  adopted  the  practice  of  going  outdoors  to 
work  when  outdoor  work  was  the  seasonable  and 
natural  thing  to  do.  and  came  back  to  indoor  work- 
when  the  food-producing  processes  of  Nature  were 
complete,  we  should  be  a  happier,  healthier  people 
and  many  of  our  economic  problems  would  be  solved. 

It  is  the  nature  of  men,  when  the  spring-time 
comes,  to  wish  to  work  in  the  soil.  They  take  a  de- 
light in  the  wholesome  odor  of  the  freshly  upturned 
earth  in  their  back  yards.  There  is  a  deep  instinct 
for  the  soil  in  every  one  of  us.  Where  is  the  man  who 
has  not  wished  scores  of  times  that  he  might  live  and 
work  in  the  country  among  growing  things?  Our 
natures  crave  direct  contact  with   Nature  herself. 

The  pity  is  that  life  is  not  organized  so  that  this 
l^erfeclly  wholesome  instinct  might  be  gratified.  If 
we  could  all  leave  the  factories  when  the  time  comes 
to  plant  corn,  and  return  to  the  factories  after  the 
harvest,  not  onl\-  would  we  be  l)etter  men  physically 
and  mentally,  but  the  elTect  on  the  social  situation 
would  be  most  beneticial. 

We  are  engaged  in  something  like  that  in  ovu'  fac- 
tories.    \\'e  are  encouraging  the  men  who  can  do  so 


FORD    IDEALS 


to  go  back  to  their  land,  raise  a  crop,  and  come  back 
to  us  when  the  crop  is  harvested. 

A  man  who  works  on  the  land  in  the  proper  season, 
and  returns  to  work  in  the  factory  when  the  land  is 
resting,  is  living  a  very  wise  program.  He  is  living 
his  life  in  rhythm  with  Nature.  He  is  maintaining 
his  health.  He  is  keeping  his  mind  in  fine  tone.  And 
he  is  doing  a  service  to  society. 

We  may  talk  as  much  as  we  please  about  in- 
dustrialism, but  the  fact  remains  that  Agriculture  is 
the  first  of  the  arts — it  is  basic.  No  wheels  turn,  no 
invention  thrives,  no  commerce  is  carried  on,  no  busi- 
ness is  done  if  the  furrows  remain  unturned.  The 
farmer  heads  the  van.  When  he  stops  the  whole 
world-procession  comes  to  a  standstill. 

Everyone  knows  this.  That  is  to  say,  everyone 
assents  to  the  truth  when  such  a  statement  is  made. 
But  very  few  realize  it.  Fewer  still  ever  think  of  it 
as  imposing  a  personal  obligation  on  themselves. 

If  we  had  the  complete  figures,  showing  to  how 
great  an  extent  the  farm  had  been  abandoned  for 
the  factory,  they  would  be  startling.  They  are  startling 
enough  for  a  single  large  concern. 

In  one  factory  it  was  found  that  10  per  cent  of  the 
men  had  come  directly  from  the  farm  to  work  in  the 
factory,  and  half  of  these  were  owners  of  farms. 

Bear  in  mind,  it  is  not  the  c.xodus  of  farmers' 
children  we  are  considering  now — that  exodus  which 
has  been  going  on  since  the  city  lights  first  attracted 
boys  from  paternal  acres — but  the  exodus  of  the 
farmers  themselves,  the  mature  generation  upon  whom 
the  weight  of  agricultural  resi)onsibility  rests. 

These  men  have  come  in  l)y  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands to  take  advantage  of  the  liigh  wages  paid  in 
modern  industry.  They  are  a  good  class  of  work- 
man. They  are.  for  the  most  part,  sober,  steady, 
thrifty  and  intelligent.  It  is  easy  to  understand  why 
any  employer  should  wish  to  keej)  them. 

But  if  the  emp]f)yer  will  check  up  his  classifica- 
tion lists  showing  from  what  previous  occupations  his 
employes  have  c(jme,  he  will  very  directlv  be  met  bv 
the  question  whether  he  is  ncjt  i)arty  to  a  serious  dis- 

114 


Farming — the   fOod-raiSing    indusTRV 

location  of  effort  by  inducing  to  stay  with  him  men 
who  would  be  better  employed  raising  food. 

These  farmers  should  be  helped  to  see  that  any 
financial  benefit  they  may  seem  to  derive  from  farm- 
abandonment  is  only  apparent  and  temporary.  That 
is,  in  ceasing  to  raise  food  they  are  creating  a  condi- 
tion which  nullifies  the  benefits  of  high  wages.  The 
price  of  food  today  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  our 
high  wages  possess  less  purchasing  power  than  they 
should,  and  the  high  price  of  food  is  due  to  a  decrease 
in  the  food  supply,  which  in  turn  is  caused  by  the 
movement  from  farm  to  factory. 

The  man  who  comes  from  the  farm  to  the  factory 
for  the  sake  of  high  wages  may  seem  to  profit  for  a 
time,  but  he  is  making  it  harder  for  everyone  else,  and 
eventually  for  himself  also- — for  when  he  ceases  to  be 
a  ])roducer  of  food,  becoming  merely  a  consumer,  he 
is  caught  in  the  jaws  of  the  very  situation  he  has 
helped  to  create. 

If  a  factory  worker's  land  is  lying  idle,  he  should 
go  and  work  it— always  with  the  understanding  that 
he  can  come  back  to  the  shop,  if  he  wishes,  when  the 
cro])  is  harvested. 

if  he  has  rented  his  farm,  he  should  go  back  at 
this  season  and  sec  that  it  is  being  properl}-  planted 
and  maintained. 

The  knowledge  of  fanning  is  so  precious  that 
everyone  who  possesses  it  has  a  sacred  duty  to  use  it. 
l^x])erienced  farmers  ought  to  be  as  unwilling  t(j  k'a\f 
the  land  to  inexperienced  hands  as  arc  engineers  to 
leave  valuablt'  machinery  in  the  hands  of  aiualem's. 

It  is  not  always  ])()ssibU'  to  send  back  the  man  who 
did  hired  work  on  tiu'  farm,  for  often  that  would 
mean  turning  him  out  of  one  job  to  seek  another 
w  liieh  he  might    fail  to  lind. 

Ihil  it  we  were  Ii\ing  under  a  i)lan  where  it  was 
understood  that  the  .S])ring  and  .Summer  months  were 
the  months  ot  (tutdoor  work,  llie^e  matters  wouM  be 
more  easily  a<ljusted. 

I  urn  aside  Iroin  the  lai'ming  (juestion  for  a  mo- 
ment and  look  at  the  building  ((ue^tion.  In  the  n]Wft 
ot  conditions  that  followed  upon  war,  the  waiaous  fac- 
tor\-    industries    ahsorhcl    thousands    ui    trained    huild- 


FORD    IDEALS 


ers — carpenters,  bricklayers,  stone  masons,  plaster- 
ers, etc. 

Now,  building  is  largely  a  seasonal  trade.  That 
is,  it  is  best  pursued  in  the  "outdoor  months."  What 
a  waste  of  power  it  has  been  to  allow  builders  to  hi- 
bernate through  the  winter,  waiting  for  the  building 
season  to  come  round. 

And  what  an  equal  waste  of  skill  it  has  been 
when  experienced  building  mechanics  have  been  forced 
into  factories  to  escape  the  losses  of  the  winter  sea- 
son, and,  in  order  to  hold  their  jobs  in  the  factories, 
have  been  forced  to  stay  there  all  through  the  building 
season  when  they  might  have  been  outdoors  helping 
to  build  homes  for  the  people  or  shops  for  industry. 

What  a  waste  this  all-year  system  has  been,  any- 
way! If  the  farmer  could  get  away  from  the  shop 
to  till  his  farm  in  the  planting,  growing  and  harvest- 
ing season  (it  is  only  a  small  part  of  the  year,  after 
all),  and  if  the  builder  could  get  away  from  the  shop 
to  ply  his  useful  trade  in  its  season,  how  much  better 
they  would  be,  and  how  much  smoother  the  world 
would  proceed. 

Suppose  we  all  moved  outdoors  every  Spring  and 
Summer — the  whole  nation  with  its  wife  and  family — 
and  lived  the  wholesome  life  of  outdoor  work  for 
three  or  four  months  !  Wouldn't  that  be  very  much 
better  than  an  insipid  vacation  at  some  inane  sum- 
mering place? 

And  after  that  we  would  all  move  back  to  the  city 
for  the  Fall  and  Winter  work  in  the  mechanical  and 
manufacturing  field.  But  how  much  better  we  would 
be  in  every  way  upon  our  return !  How  invigorated ! 
How  tuned  up !     How  balanced  we  would  feel ! 

^^'ell,  it  is  not  at  all  impossible. 

What  is  desirable  and  right  is  never  impossible. 

It  would  only  mean  a  little  team-work,  a  little  less 
attention  to  greedy  ambition  and  a  little  more  atten- 
tion to  life. 

Those  who  arc  rich  find  it  desirable  to  go  awav 
for  three  or  four  months  a  year  and  dawdle  in  idle- 
ness around  some  fancy  winter  or  summer  resort. 
The  rank  and  file  of  the  .-Vmerican  people  would  not 
waste  their  time  that  wav  even  if   thev  could.      But 


FARMING — THE     FOOD-RAISING     INDUSTRY 

they  would  provide  the  team-work  necessary  to  this 
outdoor  seasonal  employment,  and  they  would  be  quick 
to  see  how  much  more  evenly  Nature's  contribution 
and  Humanity's  contribution  to  Life  would  be 
balanced. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  doubt  that  much  of  the 
unrest  we  see  about  us  is  the  result  of  an  unnatural 
mode  of  life.  Men  who  do  the  same  thing  continu- 
ously the  year  round,  in  the  midst  of  the  same  scenes, 
and  shut  away  from  the  health  of  the  sun  and  the 
spaciousness  of  the  great  out-of-doors,  are  hardly 
to  be  blamed  if  they  begin  to  see  matters  in  a  gloomy 
or  distorted  light. 

The  physical  strain  consequent  upon  unnatural 
modes  of  life  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  causation 
of  social  irritability  and  general  discontent. 

Why  should  a  change  of  scene  always  be  in  the 
nature  of  a  vacation,  or  upon  the  doctor's  orders? 

Why  should  we  not  have  it  as  a  part  of  the  normal 
workaday  affairs  of  life? 

What  is  there  in  life  that  should  hamper  normal 
and  wholesome  modes  of  living?  And  what  is  there 
in  industry  incompatible /with  all  the  arts  receiving  in 
their  turn  the  attention  of  those  qualified  to  serve  in 
them  ? 

It  may  be  objected  that  if  the  forces  of  industry 
w^ere  withdrawn  from  the  shops  every  summer  it 
would  impede  production.  But  we  must  look  at  the 
matter  from  the  most  universal  point  of  view. 

We  must  consider  the  increased  energy  of  the 
industrial  forces  that  should  spend  three  or  four 
months  every  year  in   outdoor  work. 

We  must  also  consider  the  effect  on  the  cost  of 
living  which  would  result  from  this  general  return 
to  the  fields. 

Besides  this,  we  must  consider  the  great  and  steadv 
increase  of  general  needs  wliich  such  a  ])rograni  would 
stimulate,  and  the  prevention  of  "slack  times"  every- 
where. 

The  farm  has  its  "slack  times."  That  is  the  time 
for  the  farmer  to  come  into  llie  faetor\-  and  help  pro- 
duce the  things   he   needs   to   till   the    farm. 

The    factor\-   also   has   its   "slack    times."      'fhat    is 


FORD    IDEALS 


the  time  for  the  workman  to  go  out  to  the  land  to 
help  produce  the  food  which  is  the  ultimate  factor  in 
all   human   activity. 

Thus,  by  taking  the  "slack"  out  of  every  line  of 
work  through  the  application  of  this  seasonal  dis- 
posal of  industry,  we  should  be  restoring  the  balance 
between  the  artificial  and  the  natural. 

But  not  the  least,  perhaps  by  far  the  greatest 
benefit  would  be  the  more  balanced  view  of  life  we 
should  thus  obtain.  The  mixing  of  the  arts*is  not  only 
beneficial  in  a  material  way,  but  it  makes  for  breadth 
of  mind  and  fairness  of  judgment.  A  great  deal  of 
our  unrest  today  is  the  result  of  narrowness  of  mind 
and  prejudiced  judgment.  If  our  work  were  more 
diversified,  if  we  saw  more  sides  of  life,  if  we  saw 
how  necessary  was  one  factor  to  another,  we  should 
be  more  balanced. 

Every  man  is  better  for  a  period  of  work  under 
the  open  sky.  It  clears  his  mind  of  cobwebs.  It 
draws  away  the  ill-humors  of  the  blood.  It  puts  us 
in  touch  with  the  ancient  harmony  of  night  and  day, 
sun  and  shower,  seedtime  and  harvest.  We  can  live 
so  closely  with  one  thing  and  iill  our  minds  so  com- 
pletely with  one  aspect  of  life  as  to  l)ecome  unbalanced 
as  far  as  any  fair  and  practicable  judgment  upon  the 
whole  of  life  is  concerned. 

Let  us  never  be  afraid  of  these  ideals  of  better 
things.  The  very  fact  that  they  come  to  us  is  a 
prophecy  that  one  day  the  reality  will  come,  too.  And 
where  an  ideal  is  social  enough  to  include  all  of  us 
in  a  new  and  beneficial  plan,  it  is  pretty  certain  to 
be  a  true  ideal,  destined  to  realization. 


118 


"A  Few  Strong  Instincts  and 
a  Few  Plain  Rules" 


ALL  that  the  world  needs  for  the  guidance  of  its 
life  could  be  written  on  two  pages  of  a  child's 
copy  book.  "A  few  strong  instincts  and  a  few  plain 
rules"  would  set  the  world  singing  on  its  way,  in- 
stead of  tying  it  up  in  the  periodical  blunders  which 
hinder  progress  an<l  give  a  sense  of  infinite  and  ir- 
remediable confusion. 

Learning  may  need  large  space,  thousands  of  vol- 
umes, vast  experiment  and  failure  and  i)rogress ;  but, 
strange  to  say,  Wisdom  carries  very  little  of  such 
baggage. 

There  are  a  few  truths  all  of  us  know  when  we 
have  reached  the  more  mature  years,  and  we  see 
them  to  be  the  very  foundation  wisdom  of  life — plain, 
enduring,  true.  P>ul  when  we  happen  to  mention 
them  in  conversation  we  are  met,  if  not  with  the 
words,  then  with  the  spirit  which  says,  "Old  stuff! 
(iive  us  something  new." 

A  curious  illusion  persists  among  us  that  because 
we  liave  heard  a  thing,  we  therefore  kncnv  it.  Repeti- 
tion is  not  desired.  We  begin  to  refer  contemptu- 
ously to  "platitudes." 

Well,  it  is  very  evident  to  the  observer  that  a 
"platitude"  is  a  Iruth  of  which  everybody  has  heard. 
but  which  few  really  kium'. 

The  world  has  heard  ever\lliing  tliat  is  necessar}- 
to  the  re-establishment  of  life  in  universal  peace,  uni- 
versal prosperity,  and  nnivers.il  progress.  It  ha> 
heard  every  essential  principle  anv  number  of  times. 
And  \'et  tliere  is  no  sign  that  it  fullv  Isuows  them. 

If  you  saw  a  man  continnallv  making  sums  on 
])ai)er  in  which  2  plus  2  eipialed  5,  \-ou  would  sav, 
"l>ut  2  j)lns  2  e(|nals  4." 

"\cs,    \es,"    the   man    would    replv,    "every    school 


FORD    IDEALS 


child  knows  that.  Tell  me  something  new,"  and  go 
on  making  the  same  mistake. 

He  would  be  behaving  very  much  like  the  human 
race  today. 

"Yes,  yes,"  says  the  world  impatiently,  when  a 
simple  principle  of  life  is  uttered,  "we  know  that.  We 
heard  it  when  we  were  children.  Everybody  knows 
that.  Give  us  something  new,"  and  goes  on  in  the 
same  way  as  before. 

What  does  it  mean?  Simply  that  we  do  not  know 
anything  until,  convinced  of  its  truth,  we  act  upon  it. 

The  truth  of  things  escapes  us,  mostly  because 
truth  is  so  simple.  If  it  came  only  in  the  scholar's 
vesture,  in  a  dead  and  learned  language,  behind  a 
barrier  of  books  which  a  lifetime  would  not  suffice 
to  master,  it  would  be  hardly  possible  that  the  world 
should  miss   being  wise. 

But  Wisdom  comes  in  such  simple  guise  that  more 
often  she  is  received  by  the  peasant  than  by  the  prince. 

All  the  personal  and  social  morality  known  to  the 
race  is  summed  up  in  the  brief  Ten  Commandments, 
and  all  the  higher  and  finer  principles  of  life  are  sum- 
med up  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  both  of 
them  together  are  not  enough  to  fill  a  penny  pamphlet. 

Whatever  may  be  the  form  in  which  the  World 
Covenant  of  the  Nations  is  written,  you  will  find 
every  true  assertion  in  it  harking  back  to  the  Deca- 
logue ;  and  whatever  may  be  the  finer  service  attained 
by  the  choicer  spirits  among  mankind,  it  will  never 
exceed  the  Words  Si)oken  on  the  Mount. 

And  yet,  these  would  be  among  the  things  of  which 
lovers  of  newness  would  say,  "It  is  old  and  stale. 
Give  us  something  new." 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  isn't  anything  new ; 
and  if  there  were  it  could  only  be  attained  through  a 
complete  use  and  absorption  of  Avhat  is  old  and  true. 

At  the  core  of  everything  is  The  Principle,  and 
principles  are  from  eternity  and  to  eternity. 

All  of  our  apparent  going  forward  is  simply  a 
progress  farther  into  the  heart  of  Principle.  It  is  not 
a  learning  of  new  things,  but  a  new  learning  of  the  old. 

It  has  always  been  wrong  to  steal ;  it  alwavs  will 


"a  few  strong  instincts  and  a  few  plain  rules 

be  wrong-  to  steal,  whether  it  affects  the  potatoes  a 
farmer  has  planted,  the  child's  affection  which  the 
parent  possesses,  or  the  territory  which  forms  an  in- 
tegral part  of  a  nation's  sovereignty. 

If  you  take  this  single  matter  of  stealing,  and 
trace  it  through  all  the  operations  of  the  political, 
financial,  industrial,  social  and  moral  worlds,  you  will 
find  that — shall  we  say  more  than  half  ? — of  the  world's 
trouble  is  caused  by  plain  stealing. 

If  the  entire  story  of  the  recent  war — including  the 
quarter  century  of  preparation  for  it — is  studied  along 
the  line  of  this  single  clue  of  stealing,  the  discoveries 
would  be  amazing. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  if  the  world  were 
to  learn  no  more  in  the  next  century  than  to  live  by 
the  truths  it  already  knows,  the  year  2,000  would 
dawn  upon  an  Earth  without  a  single  sore  problem. 
So  much  of  our  progress  consists  in  going  back  and 
starting  over  again  on  another  plan,  when  it  might 
consist  in  going  from  one  complete  conquest  to  an- 
other ! 

Yet,  if  you  insist  on  these  simple,  fundamental 
principles  without  which  no  substantial  achievement 
is  possible  anywhere,  the  ready  retort  is  that  "every- 
body knows  them." 

Everybody  does  not  know  them,  although  every- 
body  may   have   heard   of    them. 

You  don't  know  that  a  lie  is  wrong  until  you  know 
that  w-hen  lies  are  circulated  in  the  human  inter- 
change of  speech,  it  is  like  flooding  monetary  currency 
with  bogus  coins. 

Speech  is  the  currency  of  thought  among  men. 
\Ve  depend  more  on  the  genuineness  of  men's  words 
than  we  do  on  the  genuineness  of  the  coins  that  cir- 
culate among  us.  Let  the  suspicion  get  abroad  that 
men's  words  arc  bogus  and  not  the  coinage  of  truth, 
and  the  whole  system  of  human  exchange  breaks  down. 

Until  we  know  that,  until  we  act  upon  the  knowl- 
edge that  falsehoods  injure  the  most  delicate  nerves 
in  the  social  body,  we  cannot  be  said  to  know  the 
simple  principle  of  truth-telling.  And  until  we  da 
know  it,  it  doesn't  matter  how  nianv  new-fangled 
matters  may  be  presented  to  please  om-  fancv.  Truth- 


FORD    IDEALS 

telling  is  mighty  old-fashioned,  but  it  will  still  be  a 
vital  principle  a  million  years  hence,  wherever  con- 
fidence between  man  and  man  is  the  basis  of  fellow- 
ship or  co-operation. 

If  a  censor  should  go  through  the  world  today, 
cleaning  out  everything  that  needs  a  lie  to  bolster  it 
up,  abolishing  everything  that  has  the  taint  of  deceit 
upon  it,  forbidding  everything  that  needs  to  be  con- 
cealed or  dissembled,  there  would  be  such  a  house- 
cleaning  in  governments,  banking  houses,  industries, 
societies  and  combinations  as  would  leave  the  world 
unrecognizably  clean. 

Why,  it  is  the  very  lack  of  coniidence  in  the  ability 
of  high-placed  persons  to  tell  the  truth  and  stand  by 
it  that  has  led  to  all  the  difficulty  at  the  Conference  of 
Paris !  The  nations  have  no  confidence  in  each  other's 
fair  professions.  Why?  Simply  because  they  feel 
that  this  "old  stuff,"  this  "platitude"  about  the  basic 
importance  of  truth  has  not  yet  been  learned  by  the 
world. 

Why  demand  novelties  foi;,a  world  that  has  yet  to 
learn  the  A  B  C  of  common  man-to-man  honesty? 

The  im])atience  of  the  world  goes  even  deeper 
than  that.  Ihere  is  not  only  a  tendency  to  thrust  aside 
these  old-fashioned  basic  principles,  but  there  is  a 
still  more  dangerous  tendency  to  believe  that  morality 
of  mind  and  body  has  no  place  in  big  affairs  at  all. 

"Ves,  yes,"  is  a  connnon  remark,  "we  take  these 
things  for  granted  without  mentioning  them." 

The  trouble  is  that  we  do  not  take  them  for 
granted  iniless  we  insist  ui)c)n  them.  I'his  world  is 
built  on  morality — and  morality  is  simply  honest  think- 
ing and  honest  doing.  There  is  nothing  that  endures 
without  this  morality. 

There  will  never  be  any  system  of  government, 
or  society,  or  business,  or  progress — no  possible  liv- 
ing together  at  all,  except  on  a  basis  of  this  morality. 

^  et  we  see  one  great  grouj)  of  men  contending 
that  all  we  need  for  the  millennimn  is  a  new  svstem 
of  distribution,  and  another  great  group  is  insisting 
that  all  we  need  is  a  system  that  will  forever  guar- 
antee to  the  inheritor  of  a  dollar  the  right  to  collect 

122 


"a    few    strong    instincts    ANn    A    l"i:\V    PLAIN    RULKS 

6  to  10  per  cent  from  the  man  who  cUd  not  inherit  the 
dollar. 

No.  It  doesn't  matter  how  mechanically  perfect 
a  social  system  may  he  devised — the  hetter  it  is  the 
more  miserahly  it  will  fail  without  a  fundamental 
morality  to  infuse  and  sustain  it.  It  is  like  making  a 
hoe.  The  style  may  he  fine,  the  iM-oportions  riji^ht, 
the  pattern  perfect;  hut  if  you  make  it  of  soft  tin,  it 
will  not  be  a  good  hoe. 

The  world  teems  with  social  plans  and  ])rograms, 
but  you  will  never  get  a  just  and  happy  society  until 
there  is  a  high  degree  of  common  morality  to  pour 
into  the  molds. 

It  is  one  of  the  fallacies  of  modern  thought,  this 
notion  that  we  may  sidetrack  this  vital  element  which 
distinguishes  man  from  the  brute  and  raises  society 
above  the  herd. 

In  olden  times  the  teachers  of  Wisdom  refused  to 
admit  to  their  instruction  any  man  who  was  not  clean 
within  and  without,  a  man  well  grounded  in  the  mor- 
alities, h'or  the  old  masters  reasoned  that  he  who 
had  not  learned  the  fundamentals  could  not  learn  the 
other  things.    Wisdom  presu|)posed  morality. 

The  old  masters  were  right.  They  grasped  a  truth 
which  is  beginning  to  emerge  again  in  our  day,  namely, 
that  men  who  are  in  wrong  relations  with  the  moral 
universe  are  not  to  be  trusted  with  the  secrets  which 
make  for  progress. 

Wc  have  seen  what  use  was  made  by  man  of  his 
command  over  the  forces  of  natinx  in  the  recent  war. 

We  may  shudderingly  imagine  what  would  have 
happened  if  man's  knowledge  of  nature's  mysteries 
had  been  greater  than  it  is. 

.All  of  which  ini])resses  us  strongl\-  with  the  thought 
that  if  still  more  jxiwer  is  to  be  won  bv  human  beings, 
it  imist  be  ke])t  under  the  restraint  of  conscience  and 
used  acccjrding  to  the  dictates  of  nioralitv.  l'"Jse 
knowledge  becomes  our  destruction  instead  of.  a>  it 
was  intended  to  be.  our  'Meat  irood. 


123 


The  Farmer — Nature's  Partner 


THIS  is  the  time  of  year  when  city  people  think  of 
Nature  as  a  big  showroom,  filled  with  bloom,  per- 
fume and  song.  A  sunnier  season  has  come,  liberating 
us  from  the  protection  of  confining  walls  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  stoking  fires.  Multitudes  of  people  have  no 
other  conception  of  Spring  than  as  a  delightful  change 
in  the  weather. 

There  is  one  man,  however,  who  knows  better.  He 
knows  that  the  first  songs  of  the  returning  birds  are 
but  the  whistles  announcing  the  turning  of  wheels  in 
Nature's  great  food  factory.  The  increased  warmth 
of  the  earth  is  turning  on  the  power  which  moves  the 
processes  of  that  first  industry.  Spring  freshets,  wood- 
land flowers,  balmy  breezes,  cordial  sunshine — all 
these  are  to  him  much  more  than  themes  for  poetry ; 
they  are  signs  that  for  him  his  day's  work  has  begun, 
a  day  which  lasts  from  seedtime  to  harvest. 

Of  course  we  know,  even  when  we  do  not  fully 
realize,  that  if  the  Farmers  should  let  the  birds  whistle 
unheeded,  and  decide  to  let  this  year  pass  without 
labor,  the  wheels  of  nature  could  grind  as  they  pleased, 
the  sun  could  furnish  heat  and  the  clouds  drop  mois- 
ture, and  it  would  not  avail  mankind.  Without  the 
labor  of  man — and  in  this  relation,  "man"  means  the 
Farmer — the  whole  produce  of  the  earth  would 
amount  to  no  more  than  matted  weeds. 

We  are  living  and  working  today  by  virtue  of  the 
food  which  men  planted  in  the  Spring  of  1918  and 
harvested  in  the  Autumn  of  1918.  And  we  shall  be  liv- 
ing and  working  in  1920  as  a  result  of  the  food  which 
is  even  now  in  process  of  production  in  this  year,  1919. 

Farming  is  the  First  Industry.  Without  it  there 
could  be  no  other  industry.  The  complete  absence  of 
steam  or  electric  power  from  the  earth  would  not  re- 
sult in  so  absolute  a  tie-up  of  effort  as  would  the  ces- 
sation of  farming. 

All  this   seems  hardly  worth   the   saying,   it   is  so 

124 


THE    TARMER — NATURES    I'ARTNER 

elementary,  so  widely  known.  And  yet  if  there  is  any 
division  of  human  lahor  upon  which  the  inhabitants 
of  large  cities  expend  little  if  any  thought,  it  is  the 
work  of  Farming.  For  all  that  multitudes  of  people 
know,  their  food  is  made  in  factories  and  purveyed 
in  the  stores.  That  the  loaves  of  the  bakeries  were 
once  brown  fields  of  grain,  the  meats  of  the  markets 
once  grazing  herds,  the  canned  goods  on  the  grocers' 
shelves  once  laboriously  cultivated  crops,  is  all  too 
little  considered. 

The  purpose  in  calling  attention  to  this  is  not  to 
enlarge  the  consideration  of  the  unintentionally  incon- 
siderate, but  to  throw  a  sidelight  on  the  general  neglect 
which  has  been  visited  on  the  most  fundamental 
industry. 

Because  the  Farmer's  work  was  done  at  a  distance 
from  the  cities,  thus  preventing  him  from  acquiring 
that  "veneer  of  civilization"  which  goes  with  starched 
collars  and  polished  shoes,  it  became  a  si^perior  fancy 
with  city  people  that  the  man  who  trod  the  furrows 
was  their  inferior.  The  list  of  nicknames  applied  to 
the  r^armer  is  ample  proof  of  this. 

Of  course,  the  Farmer  had  the  better  of  this  situa- 
tion all  the  time.  He  could  see  the  joke.  He  knew 
wherein  his  position  had  advantages  of  which  city 
dwellers  were  ignorant.  The  healthfulness.  independ- 
ence, sterling  honesty  of  the  work  in  which  he  was 
engaged  made  it  incomparably  more  desirable  than 
the  work  by  which  many  city  people  lived. 

Nevertheless,  it  reacted  on  the  Farmer  to  this  ex- 
tent :  for  a  long  time  the  inventive  genius  of  the  world 
was  almost  exclusive! v  exercised  in  behalf  of  the  city 
dweller  and  his  industries. 

^Machinery  for  city  industries,  conveniences  for 
cily  homes,  oppt)rlunities  for  cit_\-  jK'ople,  all  of  these 
commanded  the  attention  and  services  of  progressive 
leaders,  to  the  almost  total  exclusion  of  interest  in  the 
i*"armer,  his  needs  and  his  situation.  He  was  remem- 
bered chiefly  at  election  time — and  then  it  was  to  get 
something  out  of  him,  ncjt   to  do  something   for  him. 

Only  a  few  persons  were  engaged  in  tr\ing  to 
make    the    farmer's    business    moiT    efticient,    and    of 


FORD    IDEALS 

these  fewer  still  did  anything  with  an  undivided  pur- 
pose to  aid  him. 

How  the  Farmer  has  been  held  up  by  trusts  when 
he  bought ;  beaten  down  by  trusts  when  he  sold ;  de- 
rided by  ignorance  when  he  appeared  in  the  city ; 
ignored  when  he  would  send  his  representatives  to 
legislature- — all  these  injustices  form  some  of  the  best 
known  chapters  in  the  history  of  American  agriculture. 

The  effect  of  this  soon  began  to  appear.  Young 
people  are  sensitive,  not  so  ready  to  weigh  certain  at- 
titudes in  the  balances  of  an  impartial  judgment;  thus 
there  began  a  decrease  in  the  number  of  Farmers' 
sons  following  the  ancient  profession  of  agriculture. 

This  in  turn  had  its  effect  on  the  life  of  cities,  on 
the  cost  of  living,  until  there  was  never  a  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world  when  the  value  and  virtue  of 
Farming  was  more  profoundly  appreciated  than  it  i^ 
today.  We  ought  no  longer  to  rest  under  any  doubt 
as  to  where  the  credit  is  due  for  the  great  changes 
which  have  come  not  only  in  Farming  itself  but  also 
in  the  public  attitude  toward  it. 

The  h^irmer  himself  has  furnished  the  initial  stim- 
ulus for  the  vast  improvements  which  have  come  or 
are  coming  into  his  business.  He  agitated  for  schools 
in  which  his  boys  could  be  taught  scientific  agriculture. 
The  numerous  agricultural  colleges  scattered  through- 
out the  land  have  made  b^arming  a  profession  and 
given  it  the  dignity  of  an  art.  It  was  only  when  med- 
ical knowledge  was  systematized,  so  that  it  could  be 
tested  by  wide  experience  and  communicated  to  in- 
quiring minds  in  an  authoritative  way,  that  medicine 
rose  from  the  darkness  of  superstition  into  the  clear 
light  of  practical  science;  and  so  with  Farming. 

The  science  of  the  soil,  the  romance  of  rotation  of 
crops,  the  creative  imj)r()vemcnt  of  strains  of  cattle, 
the  organization  of  dairy  ])roduction.  the  efficient 
planning  of  farm  work  ancl  the  business-like  marketing 
of  crops  and  produce — all  of  these  have  not  only 
given  the  Farmer  and  his  son  the  inner  sense  of  be- 
longing to  the  great  world  of  business,  but  have  also 
placed  in  their  purse  the  world's  certificate  of  service 
in  the  form  of  handsome  pavments. 

More  than  that,  inventive  genius  has  placed  itself 

126 


THE    FARMER — NATURE  S    PARTNER 

at  the  Farmer's  service,  and  it  will  be  found  that  this 
inventive  ability  did  not  originate  in  cities,  but  on 
farms.  One  who  has  gone  from  the  Farm  to  the 
machine  shop,  or  who  all  his  life  has  worked  at  inter- 
vals in  both,  has  a  better  idea  of  the  Farmer's  needs 
and  a  more  ardent  desire  to  meet  them,  than  the 
engineer  who  simply  seeks  to  design  a  new  kind  of 
implement  or  machine  to  catch  the  farm  trade. 

Man-power  and  horse-power  are  rapidly  receding 
before  machine-power  and  water-power. 

The  effect  of  this  is  to  decrease  the  number  of 
days  work  required  to  produce  a  crop,  to  decrease  the 
strain  upon  the  Farmer's  strength,  to  decrease  the  de- 
mands upon  his  financial  resources ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  increases  the  time  he  has  for  {)lanning 
his  work,  increases  the  reserve  of  energy  he  can  give 
to  the  mental  side  of  his  job,  and  makes  for  a  larger, 
broader  life  for  him  generally. 

Farming  need  not  be  an  all-year  job.  The  Farmer, 
his  crop  harvested  and  his  field  work  done,  should  be 
free  to  devote  himself  to  other  lines  of  work  and  so 
broaden  his  experience  and  improve  his  point  of  view. 

The  tendency  to  give  credit  for  these  betterments 
to  conventions  of  city  people  is  dying  out.  for  it  is  be- 
coming more  and  more  evident  that  only  the  Farmer 
could  have  done  as  much  for  the  b^armer  as  recent 
years  have  seen   done. 

We  have  greatly  overestimated  the  cities — most 
peojile  will  agree  with  that.  When  we  all  stand  u]) 
and  sing,  "My  Country  'Tis  of  Thee,"  we  seldom 
think  of  the  cities.  Indeed,  in  that  old  national  hvmn 
there  are  no  references  to  the  city  at  all.  It  sings  of 
rocks  and  rivers  and  hills — the  great  American  ()ut- 
of -Doors. 

And  that  is  really  'I'he  Count rv.  'llial  is.  the 
country  is  Tlll^  Country.  The  real  Cnitrd  .States 
lies  outside  the  cities. 

Tlie  lood  that  sustains  us,  the  raw  material  that 
tccds  our  factories,  the  broad  water\\a\s  on  which 
our  commerce  floats — all  of  these  have  their  sources 
outside  the  cities. 

The  wealth  with  which  people  speculate  has  it< 
t)rigin  in  scenes   far  dilTerent,  and   it"   \du  w.ant   lo  see 


FORD    IDEALS 

the  true  foundations  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States,  look  at  the  soil  beneath  your  feet. 

The  fresh  moist  earth  is  the  greatest  of  all  gold 
mines,  and  the  wealth  it  produces  does  only  good  and 
never  harm. 

We  are  going  back  to  this  ideal  of  the  land  some 
day.  Both  as  an  economic  measure  and  as  a  plan 
whereby  each  man  may  get  the  most  pleasure  and 
profit  out  of  life,  all  of  us  are  going  to  be  proud  to 
be  known  as  tillers  of  the  soil. 

Some  one  has  humorously  said  that  the  dream  of 
the  Farmer  is  to  occupy  an  office  in  a  city  skyscraper, 
while  the  office  man  in  the  skyscraper  has  one  great 
desire,  which  is  to  raise  chickens  on  a  farm. 

Both  desires  are  natural.  The  Farmer  wants  to 
have  his  share  in  the  busy  life  of  the  world  of  in- 
dustry, exchange  or  professionalism.  The  worker, 
business  man  and  thinker  want  to  have  a  share  in  the 
processes  of  nature,  to  bury  their  hands  in  the  soil  and 
see  growing  things  come  to  maturity  beneath  their  care. 

Some  day  we  are  going  to  be  sensible  enough  to 
see  that  the  best  thing  that  can  hajjpen  to  both  classes 
will  be  such  a  seasonal  interchange  of  work.  City 
people  grow  narrow,  too.  Working  in  the  soil  would 
give  them  more  wholesome  views.  And  the  modern 
improvements  of  farm  conditions  are  doing  more  to 
prepare  for  this  new  mode  of  life  than  any  amount 
of  economic  argument  to  the  contrary. 


128 


Limitations  Are  Guide  Posts, 
Not  Barriers 


IT  IS  better  to  be  "narrow"  and  to  know  a  few 
things  with  certainty,  than  to  be  "broad"  and  be 
doubtful  and  hesitant  about  everything.  Take,  for 
example,  the  fact  of  limitation.  Everybody  has  his 
limitations.  Everywhere  there  are  limitations.  There 
are  certain  things  some  of  us  will  never  be  able  to  do, 
and  there  are  definite  boundaries  set  up  around  every 
force  and  principle  known  to  man. 

Limitation  is  not  only  a  personal  fact ;  it  is  a  uni- 
versal fact. 

But  to  establish  such  a  fact  is  not  the  end  of  the 
matter.  There  still  remains  the  manner  in  which  men 
react  to  it.  Facts  are  facts,  but  to  one  man  they  may 
mean  discouragement  and  defeat;  to  another  man, 
guidance,  inspiration  and  success. 

It  is  curious  to  contemplate,  that  we  need  to 
modify  very,  very  few  natural  facts ;  but  we  need 
greatly  to  modify  certain  attitudes  which  men  adopt 
toward  the  facts. 

Now,  in  the  matter  of  personal  limitations,  this 
difference  in  the  attitude  of  men  is  very  marked :  One 
man  regards  his  limitations  as  a  big  "Forbidden"  sign 
set  squarely  across  his  path,  another  man  regards  his 
limitations  as  a  very  useful  signpost  set  up  at  the  side 
of  the  road — "This  Way  To  Achievement." 

We  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  both  of  these 
men  may  be  right  and  still  be  contradictory  of  each 
other.  If  a  man  is  headed  straight  forward  on  the 
road  that  he  should  go.  his  limitations  serve  as  a  guide- 
post.  Rut  if  a  man  is  determined  to  angle  otT  and 
not  keej)  the  road  that  leads  to  his  destination,  then 
his  limitations  will  confront  him  as  j)rohibi(ions. 

It  is  all  a  question  of  whether  a  man  regards  his 
limitations  as  Nature's  friendly  hint,  or  as  her  hostile 
hindrance. 


FORD    IDEALS 


We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  power  of  the 
human  will,  and  he  would  be  bold  indeed  who  should 
set  limits  to  what  any  man  can  do.  If  the  most  un- 
likely man  should  set  himself  with  all  his  strength  and 
will  and  spirit  to  achieve  the  most  unlikely  success,  he 
would  be  likely  to  win  to  an  amazing  degree.  The 
full  exertion  of  the  Will  carries  one  far. 

But  it  goes  without  saying  that  such  a  man  could 
not  possibly  win  so  full  a  measure  of  success  as  the 
man  who  was  naturally  equipped  and  applied  himself 
just  as  diligently. 

The  man  who  exerted  all  his  powers  in  an  unlikely 
field,  that  is,  a  field  for  which  he  was  not  intended, 
may  have  the  satisfaction  of  overcoming  difficulty,  but 
it  is  quite  apparent  that  had  he  applied  the  same  energy 
to  a  likely  field,  a  field  for  which  his  bent  and  ability 
fitted  him,  his  success  would  have  been  very  much 
greater. 

You  see,  in  bucking  his  limitations  he  consumed 
so  much  of  his  power  in  negative  effort  that  less  of 
it  was  available  for  positive  effort.  If  he  had  worked 
within  his  limitations,  making  them  serve  him,  instead 
of  fighting  them  and  so  losing  their  co-operative  value, 
he  would  have  had  the  stream  of  natural  tendency 
with  him  instead  of  against  him. 

Limitations  are  not  to  be  condemned  until  they 
are  understood.  We  misunderstand  them  when  we 
regard  them  as  wholly  negative.  We  often  think  of 
limitations  as  the  "Thou  Shalt  Nots"  of  life.  You 
shall  not  be  a  poet.  You  shall  not  be  a  statesman. 
You  shall  not  be  a  surgeon.  You  shall  not  be  a 
scholar.  You  shall  not  be  a  society  pet.  You  shall 
not  be  a  merchant. — That  is  how  we  thing  of  lim- 
itations. 

But  limitations  are  positive.  Instead  of  insisting 
on  what  you  cannot  do,  they  indicate  what  you  can 
do.  ^^'hen  the  stream  of  your  energy  runs  strongly 
toward  one  career,  that  is  a  positive  indication ;  it  is 
the  limitation  of  your  energy  to  the  career  in  which 
your  best  chance  of  success  may  be  found. 

Limitations  in  this  sense  are  signboards  guiding 
you  into  the  right  path,  warning  you  against  the  by- 
paths which  open  on  this  side  and  that. 

130 


LIMITATIONS  ARE  GUIDE  POSTS,  NOT  BARRIERS 

That  which  throws  up  limits  against  your  being 
a  poet,  is  the  very  strength  which  equips  you  to  be  an 
engineer,  or  whatever  your  special  bent  may  be. 

Follow  the  direction  in  which  your  limitations 
point. 

A  man  carries  his  own  directions  inside  himself, 
in  the  nature  of  his  tastes  and  capacities. 

Every  thing  he  cannot  do  is  a  finger  pointing  to 
the  thing  he  can  do. 

Every  failure  he  makes  is  an  indication  of  the  line 
in   which  his  success  may  be  found. 

Limitations  exist ;  no  one  can  deny  the  testimony 
of  experience  on  that  point ;  but  they  exist  as  friendly 
hints  to  man,  not  as  hindrances  across  his  path. 

It  is  like  this :  you  are  driving  along  a  highway 
across  country,  and  the  highway  is  fenced  on  both 
sides,  preventing  your  driving  out  of  the  path  and 
losing  your  direction.  The  fence  is  there,  it  is  true, 
but  it  defines  your  path ;  it  does  not  obstruct  it.  That 
is  what  our  limitations  do :  they  define  our  path.  But 
try  to  turn  out  of  the  path,  and  they  obstruct  us.  We 
were  meant  to  go  forward.  When  we  turn  aside  from 
the  path  of  our  nature  and  caj)al)ilities,  our  limitations 
become  obstructions. 

That  is  the  fundamental  truth  of  limitations: — 
their  princii)al  function  is  not  to  tell  you  what  you 
cannot  do,  but  what  you  can  do.  Their  service  is 
jjositive.  iV  man  who  takes  ccnuisel  of  his  irremovable 
limitations  will  liiid  the  work  he  was  meant  for.  Cer- 
tainly he  cannot  succeed  in  a  w  (jrk  be  was  not  meant 
tor.  and  just  Jutc  is  where  bis  limitations  serve  his 
interests. 

The  pri!!ci])le  nii^lil  be  extended  to  include  other 
])liases  of  lite.  It  is  not  only  in  the  elioic(r  of  our 
vocations  that  we  tind  limitations,  but  in  all  other 
undertakings  t(jo. 

Society  is  as  much  bedm'd  about  as  the  individual. 
We  know  there  are  certain  courses  which  societv 
cannot  countenance,  becairse  tliev  are  the  antithesis  of 
social  integrity.  All  the  laws  of  conduct  relative  H) 
propert}-,  health,  demeanor,  traftic,  indnstrv,  marriage, 
are  simi)ly  signs  of  limitation  which  we  set  U])  because 
we  ha\-e  learned  that   outside  certain  limitations  there 


FORD    IDEALS 


are  no  such  desirable  conditions  as  peace  and  security 
and  progress. 

But  you  will  notice  that  these  limitations  which 
society  sets  up  are  not  for  the  discouragement  of  any 
proper  activity;  they  only  declass  those  conditions 
which  make  for  disruption  and  ruin. 

Well-disposed  people  find  these  limitations  to  be 
a  guide  of  conduct.  Self-seeking  persons  find  them 
to  be  a  check.  That  is,  those  who  are  headed  right 
find  the  law  to  be  their  friend,  while  those  who  are 
headed  wrong  find  the  law  to  be  their  foe.  It  is 
chiefly  a  matter  of  attitude. 

And  then,  ranging  still  farther  afield,  there  are 
those  wider  and  yet  not  less  defined  limitations  which 
inhere  in  our  humanity. 

Man  is  a  creature  whose  vision  excels  his  power, 
so  that  he  is  always  apprehending  with  his  imagination 
many,  many  matters  which  are  far  outside  the  reach 
of  his  hands.  Mystery  hedges  him  on  every  side. 
But  here  again  the  positive  side  of  limitations  comes 
into  view,  for  the  surrounding  mystery  has  had  as 
definite  an  eflfect  on  man's  mind  as  the  light  has  had 
on  his  skin. 

And  here  too  the  same  impulse  to  ignore  the  lim- 
itation comes  into  view,  and  leads  to  many  grotesque 
notions.  But  the  impulse,  here  as  elsewhere,  springs 
from  the  same  misconception  as  to  why  the  boundary 
lines  exist. 

Nothing  seems  more  unreasonable  than  that,  of 
two  babes  born  in  the  same  home  and  reared  under 
the  same  conditions,  one  will  exhibit  an  almost  mirac- 
ulous aptitude  for  a  given  line  of  work  and  the  other 
none  at  all.  It  would  seem  that  if  one  man  can  do 
it,  any  man  can.  And  in  the  same  way,  the  limitations 
which  surround  our  humanity  seem  unreasonable  too. 
Man,  we  know,  is  the  heir  of  all  the  Past  and,  we 
assume,  the  heir  of  all  the  Future  too.  Then  why, 
we  ask,  cannot  he  penetrate  this  mystery  or  that? 
Why  cannot  he  unlock  all  Nature's  secrets  with  one 
turn  of  the  key  ?  Why  cannot  he  disclose  the  invisible 
world  with  one  effort  of  his  will  ?  Why  is  he  limited 
to  a  small  planet  as  far  as  his  corporeal  self  is  con- 
cerned, and  to  a  little  space  in  time  as  far  as  his  con- 


132 


LIMITATIONS  ARE  GUIDE  POSTS,  NOT  BARRIERS 

sciousness  is  concerned  ?  Why  these  hmitations,  which 
in  moments  of  swelling  impatience  he  would  thrust 
aside  and  enter  baldly  the  long  locked  chambers  of 
mystery  ? 

Well,  we  may  reasonably  expect  that  the  frontiers 
of  mystery  will  recede  little  by  little  as  man  becomes 
able  to  occupy  the  new  territory  and  use  it  for  good 
instead  of  ill.  But  even  with  this  expectation  in  view, 
it  remains  none-the-less  true  that  our  limitation  with 
regard  to  those  profounder  matters  is  not  a  hindrance 
to  our  evolution. 

Always  the  price  of  man's  advance  is  his  faithful 
use  of  what  he  has.  And  it  is  only  as  mankind  learns 
how  to  perfect  and  purify  life  on  the  simpler  outlines 
now  vouchsafed  to  him  that  he  can  expect  new  rev- 
elations of  purpose  and  power.  In  becoming  trust- 
worthy in  what  the  race  now  has,  it  will  become  fit 
to  receive  more. 

So  all  through  the  sphere,  from  the  matter  of  per- 
sonal vocation  to  that  of  racial  status,  the  fact  of 
limitation  appears  as  a  friendly  one,  capable  of  wear- 
ing a  frowning  face  only  when  we  view  it  from  a  re- 
bellious angle. 

Some  Power  has  marked  the  i)ath  of  individual 
destiny  as  well  as  the  path  of  world  destiny.  It  is  all 
good  destiny  insofar  as  the  super-hint,  which  we  call 
limitation,  is  followed.  Otherwise  destiny  becomes 
delayed  and  confused,  until  in  a  good  hour  we  hnd  the 
secret  of  limitation  again,  and  follow  it  to  achieve- 
ment. 


All  Men  Are  Created  Needful 


IT  WAS  once  the  custom  of  men  who  poged  as 
thinkers  to  do  acrobatic  stunts  with  that  proposi- 
tion of  our  Declaration  of  Independence  which  asserts 
that  "all  men  are  created  equal,"  and  to  spend  weary 
and  profitless  hours  discussing  what  "equality"  meant 
and  whether  the  proposition  expressed  a  fact  or 
merely  an  ideal  with  which  the  Fathers  of  the  Re- 
public pleased  themselves. 

We  have  been  caught  in  the  wake  of  that  discus- 
sion many  times  and  have  heard  it  declared  with 
monotonous  persistency  that  men  were  not  created 
equal,  that  they  never  could  be  equal,  that  equality 
would  be  a  most  tragical  condition  on  the  earth. 

Then,  descending  spirally  from  the  tip  of  the  ideal 
to  the  stump  of  the  fact,  we  have  heard  it  demon- 
strated over  and  over  again  that  physical  equality  did 
not  exist,  that  mental  equality  did  not  exist,  that  moral 
equality  did  not  exist,  and  so  on  through  all  the  pos- 
sible classifications  of  human  divergences. 

So  far  as  the  meaning  of  the  statement  in  the 
Declaration  is  concerned  there  is  no  room  for  wide 
difference  of  opinion.  The  doctrine  is  that  men  are 
equally  endowed  with  certain  fundamental  rigJifs,  not 
that  they  are  equally  endowed  with  certain  qualities. 

Indeed,  the  very  fact  of  the  inequality  of  men  in 
resj)ect  of  their  qualities,  is  the  reason  their  e([uality 
of  rights  had  to  be  declared  and  decreed. 

The  miiuite  you  declare  ecpiality  of  human  rights 
you  imj)ly  inc(|uality  of  human  {[uality.  It  is  one  way 
of  warning  tlie  highly  endowed  individual  that  his 
higher  possessions  do  not  give  him  any  right  to  inter- 
fere with  the  fundamental  rights  of  others.  The  most 
inferior  individual  has  riglits  whicli  even  the  most 
sii])eri()r  dare  not  violate. 

Of  course,  as  long  as  we  remain  safelv  on  the 
high  i)lane  of  general  ]irinci])les  we  move  along  peace- 
fully   without    disturbini"-   cliallenoes.      P>ut    when    we 


AM.     MKN     AR1-:    CKKATKI)     NKEDFUL 

try  to  apply  the  principles,  we  find  ourselves  con- 
fronted with  all  the  aspects  of  human  nature.  Within 
the  limits  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  we  are 
safe  enough,  for  the  heathers  were  thinking  mostly 
about  the  fundamentals  of  political  rights.  But  when 
we  approach  the  newer  ideals  of  rights  and  ecjuality 
we  fmd  ourselves  floundering  in  a  waste  of  conflicting 
theories. 

vSomeone  has  said  that  it  makes  all  the  dilTerence 
in  the  world  whether  your  attitude  says,  "1  am  as  good 
as  anybody  else,"  or  "Everybody  else  is  as  good  as  I 
am."  And  so  it  does.  Likewise  wlu;n  a  man  preaches 
the  equal  division  of  property,  it  makes  all  the  dif- 
ference between  selfishness  and  sincerity  whether  he 
means  that  he  should  divide  with  his  neighbor,  or  his 
neighbor  with  him.  And  as  to  ecpiality,  no  matter  in 
what  we  may  agree  that  it  consists,  it  makes  a  world 
of  difference  whether  the  plan  is  to  e(|ualize  every- 
body on  a  low  standard  or  on  a  high  one — levelling 
up,  or  levelling  down. 

Some  extremists  seem  to  believe  that  a  levelling 
down  will  result  in  a  levelling  up.  But  they  have  not 
looked  long  enough  at  the  figures. 

Certainly  we  ought  to  be  agreed — it  is  probably 
time  to  say  that  we  all  are  agreed — that  certain  in- 
dispensable necessities  to  self-respect  and  independ- 
ence nuist  be  put  within  the  reach  of  all. 

The  physical  basis  of  life  must  be  made  secure, 
not  on  the  narrowest  margin  on  which  life  can  be 
maintained,  but  on  a  margin  sufilicient  to  permit  soul- 
room,  so  to  si)eak — room  for  the  individual  to  grow, 
to  show  what  is  in  him. 

To  say  that  these  ought  t(^  be  made  inalienable, 
that  is,  put  beyond  the  possil)ility  of  loss,  is  to  go 
further  than  common  sense  would  warrant.  To  guar- 
antee a  man  a  living  simply  because  be  took  the  trouble 
to  be  born  into  the  world  would  be  to  create  a  larger 
race  of  idlers  than  we  now  liave.  Xo;  justice  is 
served,  humanity  is  honored  and  ecpialitv  is  estal)- 
lished  when  we  put  the  indispensable  within  the  reach 
of  all,  even  of  those  whose  ability  is  not  e([ualled  bv 
their   willingness  to  do. 

The  minimum  rights  of  hunian  beings  are  life,  lib- 

135 


FORD    IDEALS 

erty,  the  opportunity  to  express  in  service  all  the  power 
that  is  in  them,  and  in  every  emergency  beyond  their 
control  a  livelihood  that  is  honorable  to  their  manhood. 

These  rights  are  based  on  our  equality  of  need. 
All  of  us,  regardless  of  our  individual  endowments  of 
mind  or  heart,  need  food,  shelter,  clothing  and  the 
satisfaction  of  the  social  sense  which  is  "a  sense  of 
belonging."  The  great  man  never  becomes  so  great  as 
to  rise  beyond  the  need  of  these ;  the  small  man  never 
becomes  so  unimportant  as  to  sink  beyond  the  need 
of  them.  They  are  the  equal  necessities  of  our  com- 
mon humanity. 

With  this  equality  established,  even  if  no  more 
were  permitted,  there  would  still  be  a  firm  foundation 
— a  place  to  start  from — which  would  ,in  time  see  the 
inequalities  of  endowment  appear  in  human  life.  Na- 
tural gifts  are  never  equal.  Where  we  have  erred  is 
in  lavishly  rewarding  the  possession  of  great  gifts  as 
if  they  were  the  creation  of  the  man  possessing  them, 
and  penalizing  the  man  who  has  no  great  gifts,  as  if 
the  lack  of  them  were  his  fault. 

To  possess  a  great  gift  is  in  itself  a  great  reward. 
To  have  power  and  insight,  a  stored-up  energy  and 
an  intuitive  knowledge  as  if  in  some  mystic  laboratory 
of  the  past  all  the  drudgery  of  learning  had  been  fin- 
ished— this  is  indeed  a  great  reward,  as  also  is  the 
sense  of  usefulness  in  putting  that  gift  at  the  service 
of  others. 

We  cannot  pay  the  big  mind  that  comes  to  earth 
with  great  visions  to  unfold  and  realize,  and  we 
should  not  penalize  the  little  mind  which  comes  only 
with  two  willing  hands  to  help  work  out  slowly  and 
laboriously  the  other's  glowing  vision.  The  bodies  of 
both  inhabit  the  same  environment  under  the  same 
conditions,  and  the  self-respect  and  honor  of  one  re- 
quires as  careful  safeguarding  as  those  of  the  other. 

And  yet  equality  can  be  so  conceived  and  regu- 
lated as  to  destroy  liberty.  That  would  appear  to  be 
the  difficulty  in  Russia.  Taking  a  low  standard  which 
owes  its  existence  in  the  first  place  to  a  denial  of  fun- 
damental human  equality,  and  making  that  the  stand- 
ard to  which  the  newer  practice  of  e(iuality  must  con- 

136 


ALL    MEN     ARE    CREATED    NEEDFUL 

form,  the  result  is  that  equality  is  made  a  cage  in- 
stead of  an  opportunity. 

The  only  inequalities  within  our  power  to  remedy 
are  those  which  have  to  do  with  the  material  side. 
Much  is  being  said  about  so  manipulating  the  condi- 
tions of  human  existence  as  to  produce  a  super-race, 
but  that  is  so  far  in  the  future,  even  should  it  be  pos- 
sible at  all,  that  it  cannot  serve  as  a  substitute  for  what 
we  ought  to  do  today. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  if  we  were  only  economi- 
cally adjusted  to  a  true  and  practical  kind  of  equality, 
then  would  genius  begin  to  blossom  among  us.  We 
are  told  that  it  is  our  economic  conditions  which  make 
for  a  scarcity  of  great  leaders  and  seers  and  developers 
of  new  powers. 

Well,  that  sounds  hopeful  enough,  and  yet  when 
one  looks  abroad  on  those  classes  which  have  never 
been  "hampered  by  the  necessity  of  working  for  their 
living."  is  the  percentage  of  genius  very  large  among 
them  ? 

Hardly.  Outside  of  the  new  dances  and  new 
methods  of  flimflamming  the  producing  public,  wc 
owe  scarcely  anything  to  them — certainly  not  enough 
to  justify  their  position  as  idlers  and  meddlers  and  a 
sort  of  semi-royalty  in  this  nation  of  ours. 

One  is  not  even  sure  that  an  increase  of  economic 
equality  will  make  us  a  morally  better  people.  Look 
at  those  same  classes  which  have  been  "emancipated 
from  labor"  and  you  don't  find  high  morality  in  ex- 
cessive degree,  do  you?  Why,  those  people  are  part  of 
our  inferior  classes ! 

That  is  to  say.  it  is  easy  to  prophesx'  too  much 
from  our  efforts  to  straighten  out  the  imperfect  prac- 
tices of  our  society.  But  even  that  ought  not  to  deter 
us  from  the  effort.  For  this  must  always  be  true :  that 
upon  those  who  see  the  wrong  the  dutv  devolves  to 
right  it.  and  they  at  least  are  better  for  the  attempt. 
We  must  do  right  because  it  is  right  and  not  from 
delusive  expectations  of  what  results  will  be. 

Opportunity  is  e(|ual  now.  If  anything  remains 
unequal  it  is  the  power  to  use  it.  ^'ou  cannot  make 
o[)portunity  anything  but  eciual.  If  a  ])crson  cannot 
measure  up  to  his  op])ortunity,  you  cannot  make  him 

137 


FORD    IDEALS 


measure  up.  The  question  of  justice  enters  only  in  the 
event  of  that  person  having"  been  subjected  to  such  con- 
ditions as  prevented  him  from  havin<j  a  fair  chance  to 
measure  up.  If  he  was  deprived  of  early  training; 
if  compelled  to  work  in  early  youth  he  ruined  his 
health;  if  constantly  borne  down  under  the  burden  of 
injustice  he  lost  his  spirit  and  ambition — these  in- 
equalities, of  course,  are  chargeable  to  society  and  are 
social  sins. 

No  one  will  deny  that  we  have  made  progress  along 
these  lines,  and  if  anyone  points  to  the  prevailing  talk 
of  disturbance,  one  may  simply  reply  that  it  is  one  of 
the  proofs  that  we  have  made  progress. 

As  our  intelligence  increases,  our  needs  increase ; 
and    as    our   needs    increase,    our   demands    increase ; 
and  as  our  demands  increase,  the  greater  the  readjust- 
ment necessary  in  industrial,  social  and  political  prac 
tices. 

We  ought  to  welcome  change  for  the  better.  No 
one  wants  the  world  to  remain  what  it  was  even  a  few 
months  ago. 

If  there  is  one  j^oint  on  which  counsel  is  required 
today  it  is  this  :  Change  is  not  the  main  thing,  for 
mere  Change  may  be  Change  b'or  The  Worse.  We 
must  keep  our  eye  on  the  constructive  and  forward- 
looking  effort,  so  that  our  changes  may  be  toward  a 
better  and  <rreater  civilization. 


Can  You  Make  Your  Job 
Bigger? 


THERE  are  many  ways  of  fori,Mng  ahead,  some  of 
which  are  mere  spurts  soon  succeeded  hy  retreats; 
but  the  best  way,  the  way  that  involves  least  doubt 
and  yields  most  satisfaction,  is  the  method  of  getting 
ahead  with  one's  job. 

There  are  men  who  get  themselves  ahead  regard- 
less of  whether  their  job  goes  ahead  or  not — self- 
boosters ;  but  tiicse  men  are  soon  looking  for  other 
things. 

There  are  men  who  get  \\ay  ahead  of  their  jobs, 
in  which  case  they  must  be  given  more  and  greater 
opporttinities  to  progress. 

But  the  man  who  goes  ahead  with  the  job  and  on 
the  job  and  by  reason  of  the  job,  is  the  man  who  makes 
the  most  substantial  progress. 

This  may  sound  very  much  like  some  of  the  ad- 
vice that  was  given  us  when  we  were  young,  but 
there  is  one  ([uality  a))Out  most  of  the  advice  we  got 
then  which  we  ought  not  to  overlook — it  was  good  and 
true;  and  much  of  it  is  just  as  true  today  as  it  was 
then. 

Ju'erywhere  there  are  men  who  think  thev  could 
do  something  else  much  better  than  thev  are  doing 
their  ])resent  work.  It  is  customary  to  make  light  of 
such  men  and  their  dreatns,  and  even  to  cl()ul)t  that 
they  would  be  a  bit  better  in  another  job  thrui  the\  are 
in  their  j)resent  one. 

lUit,  taking  for  granted  that  their  \ie\v  of  the 
sititation  is  the  ti"ue  one,  what  is  the  answer?  .Simply 
this:  either  they  must  themselves  act  on  their  faitli 
in  themselves  and  lind  the  other  thing  which  thev  think 
they  can  do  better;  or  they  must  do  so  well  the  thing 
they  are  now  doing  that  with  tlii^  accmimlati'd  ex- 
perience their  desire  tor  something  dilTeiX'nt  will  com- 
mand   conlidence    and    resi)ect    in    lliose    who   nia\-    be 


FORD    IDEALS 

able  to  help  them  make  the  change.  You  see,  it  all 
comes  back  to  the  job. 

The  job  is  the  barometer  of  the  man.  No  matter 
what  it  is,  you  can  always  tell  how  much  of  industry, 
judgment  and  carefulness  a  man  brings  to  his  work 
by  watching  how  he  does  what  he  is  doing. 

You  can  always  tell  a  slouch  by  his  work,  whether 
his  work  be  in  finance  or  farming,  in  professional  or  in 
industrial  life. 

It  doesn't  matter  what  it  is,  there  is  no  job  so 
menial  that  it  cannot  tell  as  much  about  a  man  as  the 
presidency  could. 

Just  now  there  are  more  menial  jobs  than  there 
will  be  in  the  future ;  and  as  long  as  there  are  menial 
jobs,  someone  will  have  to  do  them ;  but  there  is  no 
reason  why  a  man  should  be  penalized  because  his  job 
is  "menial." 

There  is  one  thing  that  can  be  said  about  "menial" 
jobs  that  cannot  be  said  about  a  great  many  so-called 
more  responsible  jobs,  and  that  is,  they  are  useful  and 
they  are  respectable  and  they  are  honest. 

Did  you  ever  see  dishonest  callouses  on  a  man's 
hand  ?  Hardly.  When  men's  hands  are  calloused  and 
women's  hands  are  worn,  you  may  be  sure  that  Hon- 
esty is  there.  And  that's  more  than  you  can  say  about 
many  soft,  white  hands ! 

But  even  so.  the  time  is  coming  when  the  hand  will 
not  be  subjected  to  so  much  hard  work  as  falls  to  it 
today.  Steel  fingers  and  arms  will  do  many  things  that 
fleshly  arms  and  fingers  now  do,  and  a  part  of  at  least 
the  physical  burden  will  be  lifted  off  our  race. 

It  is  very  natural  for  a  man  who  is  alive  in  his 
mind  and  vigorous  in  his  ambition  to  desire  a  job  that 
is  fit  for  him.  But  does  he  ever  stop  to  think  of  this : 
— What  is  to  hinder  any  job  being  made  fit  for  any 
man? 

There  is  not  so  much  difference  between  men  as 
we  sometimes  think.  We  like  to  classify  men  by  races 
or  intelligence  or  business  success,  and  thus  reach  the 
conclusion  that  there  are  "superior"  and  "inferior" 
people. 

But  any  man  who  knows  his  own  heart  and  his 
fellow  men,  knows  there  is  scarcely  any  fundamental 

140 


CAN    YOU    MAKE  YOUR    JOB   BIGGER? 

difference  between  human  beings.  There  is  more  real 
difference  between  two  breeds  of  dogs  than  there  is 
between  the  most  highly  cultivated  man  in  the  world 
and  the  most  unfortunate  mortal.  Our  likeness  to  one 
another  is  astonishing.  It  ought  to  keep  us  more 
balanced  in  our  judgments  of  our  fellow  men. 

People  classify  men  according  to  false  standards, 
and  are  quite  satisfied  to  do  so — why?  Because  by 
that  means  they  can  always  contrive  to  make  them- 
selves appear  "superior"  to  someone.  No  matter  how 
many  people  may  be  superior  to  them,  if  they  can  only 
be  superior  to  men  inferior  still,  that  fully  satisfies 
those  who  hanker  after  human  gradations — our  Amer- 
ican snobs. 

One  of  the  reasons  the  man  who  is  engaged  in 
hand-work  wants  some  other  kind  of  work  is  this :  he 
fancies  that  somehow  hand-work  is  a  little  lower  than 
head-work.  Well,  that  formerly  was  the  theory.  But 
it  isn't  so  any  longer.  Thank  heaven !  the  hand-worker 
has  at  last  come  into  his  own,  and  even  measured  by 
the  financial  rewards  he  is  on  a  higher  plane  than  many 
a  so-called  "head-worker."  Many  a  man  wears  a 
white  collar  who  isn't  earning  what  a  grimy  handed 
worker  is  paid  today. 

It  is  a  terrible  thing  that  wc  ever  allowed  this  false 
idea  to  belittle  the  nobility  of  hand-work !  Why, 
liand-w^ork  keeps  the  world  going.  When  next  you 
ride  home  on  the  street  car  at  the  rush  hour,  note  the 
hands  of  the  men  who  ride  with  you.  They  are  not 
soft  and  pink  and  manicured;  they  are  big  and  rough 
and  smeared  with  oil  and  smudge.  Look  well  at  those 
hands,  for  they  turn  the  very  world  on  its  axis,  mak- 
ing it  a  planet  of  power  by  day  and  a  glory  of  light  by 
nigiu,  and  really  give  our  cotintry  the  industrial  rc])u- 
tation  it  has  gained. 

Hand-work  !  All  the  arts  engage  the  hand.  The 
balanced  work-ration  includes  both  head  and  hand. 
When  the  creative  hand  is  denied  its  place  in  the 
world's  work,  life  becomes  unbalanced. 

But  perhaps  there  is  another  and  deeper  reason  why 
men  sometimes  grow  discontented  and  seek  a  change  : 
they  want  a  career,  and  the  job  they  have  niav  not 
seem  to  promise  a  career,     .\gain  the  (jucstio!!  comes : 

141 


FORD    IDEALS 


Could  that  job  be  made  so  as  to  afford  a  man  his 
career? 

The  time  has  come,  as  already  stated,  when  drudg- 
ery must  be  abolished  out  of  labor.  It  is  not  work 
that  men  object  to,  but  the  element  of  drudgery  in 
work.  \ye  must  drive  out  drudgery  wherever  we 
find  it  and  set  men  physically  free.  We  shall  never 
be  wholly  civilized  until  we  remove  the  tread-mill  from 
the  daily  job. 

Of  course,  invention  is  doing  this  in  some  degree 
now.  We  have  succeeded  to  a  very  great  extent  in 
relieving  men  of  the  heavier  and  more  onerous  jobs 
that  used  to  sap  their  strength,  but  even  when  lighten- 
ing the  heavier  labor  we  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  re- 
moving monotony.  That  is  another  field  that  beckons 
us — the  abolition  of  monotony,  and  in  trying  to  ac- 
complish that  we  shall  doubtless  discover  other  changes 
that  have  to  be  made  in  our  system. 

But  here  is  the  point:  If  invention  must  do  these 
things  for  your  job,  why  don't  you  search  for  the 
invention  ? 

Your  job  is  your  field.  If  you  say  you  are  too 
good  for  your  present  job,  have  you  ever  given  any 
thought  to  methods  by  which  your  present  job  could 
be  made  good  enough,  or  even  too  good,  for  you? 

You  say  you  want  a  job  on  which  you  can  look 
forward  to  a  life's  career:  Have  you  ever  studied 
your  own  job  from  the  standpoint  of  making  it  a 
worthy  life  career? 

You  know,  if  these  things  are  to  be  done,  some- 
body must  do  them.  If  all  of  us  leave  the  job  that 
doesn't  fit  us  without  doing  something  to  make  it  fit 
men  like  us,  we  are  not  making  progress  very  fast. 
If  we  simply  desert  our  jobs,  leaving  them  to  whom- 
soever happens  along,  we  are  not  making  the  world 
nnich  better  for  our  fellow  men.  If  the  man  who  fol- 
lows you  on  the  job  is  going  to  be  up  against  the  same 
conditions  that  you  were,  the  world  has  not  moved 
forward  one  step  so  far  as  that  particular  job  is 
concerned. 

Then,  if  someone  is  destined  to  do  these  things, 
why  not  you?  Who  knows  the  job  better  than  you  do? 
It  is  quite  possible  that  men  do  not  always  find  their 


CAN    YOU    MAKE  YOUR    JOB   BIGGER? 

career  in  the  first  job  they  get,  nor  always  in  the 
second.  But  this  much  is  true:  Every  job  is  destined 
to  become  in  some  sense  some  man's  career,  and  if 
that  is  true  it  ought  to  be  so  adjusted  as  to  make  a 
worthy  career   for  him. 

Now,  there  is  no  worldly  success  greater  than  leav- 
ing more  jobs  and  better  jobs  where  we  found  new 
jobs  and  less  desirable  ones.  The  trend  of  progress 
will  never  be  toward  a  decrease  in  the  number  or 
quality  of  jobs — always  in  an  increase.  Every  new 
idea  brings  new  jobs.  Every  time  a  job  is  improved, 
it  breeds  more  of  them,  and  by  its  influence  makes 
better  the  jobs  around  it. 

This  is  just  a  suggestion  toward  finding  a  career 
and  finding  success :  How  do  you  know  that  the 
career  you  seek  and  the  success  you  desire  is  not  right 
there  in  the  job  you  have?  How  do  you  know  you 
cannot  make  it  a  career,  and  turn  it  into  a  success?' 
There's  a  field  for  your  invention.  There's  a  chance 
to  serve  humanity  down  to  the  last  working  day  of 
Time. 

And  be  sure  of  this:  in  thus  moving,  not  ahead 
of  your  job,  nor  in  despite  of  your  job,  but  in  moving 
ahead  with  the  job  and  on  the  job  and  by  the  impetus 
you  give  the  job,  the  other  rewards  of  labor,  too.  will 
be  \ours  in  abundance. 


A  Nation  of  Pioneer  Blood 


ONE  of  the  great  things  about  the  American  peo- 
ple is  that  they  are  pioneers.  They  are  of  pioneer 
blood.  Even  though  most  of  the  world  has  been  trod- 
den by  man,  and  the  farthest  frontiers  have  been 
linked  together  by  the  intrepid  inquiring  spirit  of  the 
pioneer,  the  blood  of  high  adventure  has  not  thinned 
nor  cooled,  and  where  we  lack  lands  and  seas  to  ex- 
plore we  are  making  up  by  conquering  new  continents 
of  life. 

Ask  anyone  you  meet  what  his  origin  is,  and  you 
will  discover  that  his  family  roots  are  overseas.  If 
not  a  pioneer  himself,  he  is  a  pioneer's  descendant. 

The  "forty-niners"  are  practically  all  gone,  and 
those  equally  audacious  men  who  visioned  cities  on 
the  prairies ;  but  in  any  shop  in  any  city  you  can  find 
men  who  came  half  way  round  the  world  in  search, 
not  of  a  new  country,  but  of  a  new  life.     Pioneers ! 

In  a  near-by  neighborhood  whose  residents  had 
long  prided  themselves  on  being  completely  American, 
the  school-teachers  inaugurated  a  letter-writing  con- 
test about  the  advantages  of  life  in  the  United  States, 
and  when  the  little  essays  were  published  in  the  local 
paper  the  neighbors  were  astonished  to  learn  that  50 
per  cent  of  the  children  wrote  as  travelers,  as  pioneers 
— they  had  not  been  long  over  from  foreign  lands 
where  they  were  born. 

Astonished,  too,  by  the  testimony  of  their  own  eyes, 
that  the  little  foreign-born  children  could  write  better 
essays  on  Americanism  than  the  American-born  chil- 
dren could,  because  the  little  immigrants  had  a  back- 
ground of  contrast.  They  had  the  outlook  of  the 
pioneer. 

It  is  perfectly  clear,  when  we  think  of  it,  that  a 
man  who  has  spirit  enough  to  pull  up  his  roots  and 
betake  himself  to  a  strange  land  and  a  strange  people 
from  a  motive  of  bettering  his  condition,  is  a  superior 
sort  of  man. 


A   NATION  OF   PIONEER  BLOOD 

He  could  have  remained  overseas.  He  could  have 
settled  down  into  the  conditions  which  satisfied  his 
forbears,  and  which  still  satisfy  many  of  his  fellows. 
It  is  natural  for  men  to  do  this,  unless  they  have  an 
urge  within  which  drives  them  to  seek  the  better  thing. 

And  so  he  comes  to  us,  by  way  of  the  great  sea- 
ports. He  comes  down  the  gang-plank  a  bit  bewil- 
dered. His  dress  is  not  as  ours;  his  speech  is  not  as 
ours ;  all  his  habits  stamp  him  as  a  stranger. 

To  the  ignorant  he  brings  amusement.  To  the 
exploiter  of  human  labor,  he  brings  a  temptation.  But 
to  the  man  who  sees  and  understands,  he  brings  a 
prophetic  vision. 

Who  is  this  man  with  his  bundle  ?  He  is  a  pioneer. 
Make  way  for  him. 

Now,  wherever  we  go  in  this  country  we  find 
pioneers  or  the  sons  of  pioneers.  Not  the  pioneers  of 
Mayflower  nor  yet  of  Revolutionary  days — pioneers 
of  five  and  ten  years  ago. 

It  makes  little  difference  if  your  forefathers  did 
come  over  in  the  Mayflower — they  were  immigrants, 
strangers  in  a  strange  land,  pioneers — and  we  are  their 
sons. 

So  that  the  spirit  of  initiative,  the  very  blood- 
stream of  high  daring,  the  vital  urge  to  rest  nowhere 
until  Opportunity  is  attained,  are  bred  in  the  very 
fibers  of  our  bodies. 

Of  no  other  people  can  it  be  said  in  the  same  sense 
as  it  is  said  of  the  people  of  the  United  States— "They 
are  the  pioneers  of  every  people  under  heaven." 

It  is  only  natural,  therefore,  that  the  pioneer  spirit, 
denied  further  exercise  in  exploration  of  new  seas  and 
conquest  of  new  continents,  now  turns  itself  to  other 
exploits,  different,  yet  calling  for  the  same  old  daring 
of  the  pioneer. 

It  was  natural  at  the  outset  that  the  first  comers 
should  pioneer  upon  a  new  venture  into  freedom. 
Had  they  been  no  more  than  colonists,  set  down  in  a 
certain  place  to  build  up  an  imitation  of  the  land  they 
left,  the  history  of  the  world  would  have  been  very 
different. 

Colonists  they  were  at  first,  but  colonists  of  their 
own  free  will,  and  that  made  them  pioneers. 

145 


FORD    IDEALS 


Therefore  they  were  not  imitators  but  creators, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  the  attempted  imitations  of 
government  and  social  conditions  were  banished  in  a 
great  ebullition  of  the  creative  spirit. 

They  called  it  "revolution"  then,  but  it  was  crea- 
tion. It  depends  upon  your  point  of  view  which  one 
of  these  words  you  use.  Creation  is  always  an  un- 
comfortable, even  a  reprehensible  process  in  the  view 
of  the  old,  outworn  but  exceedingly  profitable  forms 
which  it  removes. 

It  was  just  as  natural  that  within  this  newly  cre- 
ated form  of  opportunity  new  freedom  of  effort  should 
reveal  itself.  Invention,  enterprise,  commerce,  wealth, 
power  followed  quickly,  as  they  always  follow  where 
men  breathe  free  air. 

If  the  late  war  may  be  said  to  have  expanded  the 
limits  of  human  freedom  everywhere,  especially  where 
freedom  was  not  complete  before,  it  may  also  be  said, 
as  a  consequence,  that  Ave  are  on  the  eve  of  a  new  era 
of  inventiveness,  a  new  influx  of  epoch-making  ideas. 

Just  as  rain  cannot  fall  in  some  regions,  so  ideas 
cannot  be  born  and  developed  in  an  atmosphere  of 
oppression.  But  the  t<;mperature  of  the  world  has 
become  more  favorable  of  late,  and  we  may  expect  to 
see  a  great  downpour  of  ideas  which  will  further  lib- 
erate man  and  make  him  free  of  the  world  in  which 
he  finds  himself. 

All  this  is  just  another  way  of  saying  that  we  are 
a  pioneering  people.  We  seek  tlie  conditions  of  free- 
dom, and  all  else  follows  as  day  follows  night. 

Our  latest  great  ])ioneering  effort  was  directed  to- 
ward opening  a  new  route  through  world  war  to  world 
])eace.  W'e  pioneered  the  thought  of  a  war  being 
fought  to  end  all  war.  W'e  [)ionecred  the  thought  of 
a  war  being  waged  in  ntler  scorn  of  material  profit 
from  it.  W'e  pioneered  tlie  thought  of  actually  com- 
pelling the  peace  terms  wliich  settled  a  single  war  to 
serve  also  as  the  niachinerv  which  should  prevent  all 
future  wars. 

In  doing  these  things  we  are  exhibiting  our  pioneer 
blood  in  its  best  strains.  W'e  arc  striking  out  upon  new 
]>aths  as  truly  as  did  C'olumbus  when  he  set  sail  toward 
the  niNSterious  west. 


A    NATION    OF    PIONEER    BLOOD 

The  prominent  feature  of  the  American  pioneering 
spirit  is  that  it  is  constructive.  We  do  not  always 
reaUze  that  there  is  a  perversion  of  the  pioneering  urge 
which  it  behooves  us  to  watch. 

Illustrations  of  this  lower  sort  of  adventure  are 
numerous  in  history.  There  are  pioneers  who  rush  to 
a  land  upon  first  reports  of  its  richness,  to  strip  it 
bare  and  carry  away  its  wealth.  There  are  other 
pioneers  who  move  in  to  occupy  the  land,  develop  and 
conserve  it,  and  enhance  its  value  and  usefulness. 

Where  we  have  known  exactly  what  to  do  in  our 
pioneering  work, -we  have  done  it  with  directness  and 
speed.  But  where  we  have  not  known  exactly  what 
to  do,  we  have  gone  carefully,  with  true  pioneer  cau- 
tion, in  order  not  to  cause  injury  through  our  ig- 
norance. 

That,  perhaps,  is  a  fair  description  of  our  social 
attitude  these  days.  There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever 
that  we  feel  the  surge  of  pioneer  blood  in  us  once 
more  as  we  contemplate  social  conditions  in  our  coun- 
try. We  feel  the  impulse  once  again  to  strike  out  new 
highways,  new  roads  through  the  social  wilderness, 
which  the  thronging  feet  of  happy  people  may  wear 
into  great  world  paths  by  which  all  people  may  come 
to  peace  and  prosperity. 

Just  remember  that  we  are  a  race  of  ])ionecrs  ;  that 
there  is  no  active  blood  in  our  nation  thai  is  not  de- 
scended innu  the  pioneers;  and  then  examine  the 
tendencies  of  today  in  the  light  of  that  thought,  and 
see  if  our  people  are  not  feeling  the  unrest  to  Ije  on 
the  pioneer  path  once  more  and  discover  newer  and 
better  regions  of  life  and  its  jinrsnits  for  all  men. 

That,  undoubtedlv.  is  the  direction  in  which  we 
are  going  to  explore  next — the  direction  ol  social 
advance. 

But  we  are  cautious  about  it.  We  know  tliat  ev- 
erything UH'  have  achifN'ed  in  the  oOO  \cars  of  our 
occupancy  ot  this  continent  is  not  bad.  W  v  know  j)er- 
fectly  well  that  uc  could  not  ha\e  workiMJ  and  tliongbt 
;md  sacriliced  without  acconiphshmg  somelhing  wor- 
tlu'  to  be  buih  inl<»  the  noblest  trmplc  ol  social  justice 
our  breed  could  e\(T  rear.      So  we  aic  cautions  about 


FORD    IDEALS 


it :  in  trying  to  get  rid  of  what  is  faulty  and  wrong, 
we  do  not  desire  to  injure  what  is  useful  and  good. 

It  was  not  the  pioneer  who  destroyed  the  wealth 
of  game  and  forest  and  soil ;  it  was  the  thoughtless 
hordes  that  followed — those  who  stayed  at  home  until 
hardy  men  had  struck  out  the  paths  and  subdued  the 
dangers.  And  the  true  pioneer  will  not  bring  disaster 
to  what  is  good  in  the  new  regions  which  he  seeks  to 
subdue  to  justice  and  righteousness. 

No  one  can  contemplate  the  nation  to  which  we 
belong  without  realizing  the  distinctive  prophetic  char- 
acter of    its   obvious   mission   to   the   world. 

We  are  pioneers.  We  are  the  pathfinders.  We 
are  the  road-builders.  We  are  the  guides,  the  van- 
guards of  Humanity. 

The  American  people  represent  the  human  ex- 
tract of  that  which  was  the  best  in  all  other  countries, 
the  pioneers  of  all  pioneers,  and  we  are  therefore 
destined  to  lead  the  plain  peoples  of  the  world  in  any 
path  we  lay  out ;  they  are  confident  that  we  will  lead 
them  into  no  slough,  no  miry  swamp  of  disaster. 

Is  not  that  a  most  solemn  responsibility  for  us  to 
bear?  Ought  it  not  to  guarantee  that  such  confidence 
will  not  be  misplaced? 

When  the  American  Pioneer  strikes  out  the  path, 
the  world  may  know  that  it  will  be  safe  for  all  the 
fathers  and  mothers,  young  men  and  maidens,  and  all 
the  little  children  of  humanity — a  safe  road  for  man- 
kind. 


148 


Human  Nature  and  the 
Social  System 


THERE  are  two  positions  from  which  one  may 
consider  the  economic  conditions  under  which  we 
live,  and  the  one  you  chose  will  determine  the  attitude 
and  emphasis  of  any  thought  or  action  taken  with  ref- 
erence to  those  conditions. 

Yoti  may  say  that  it  is  the  economic  condition 
which  makes  mankind  what  it  is ;  or  yoti  may  say  that 
it  is  mankind  that  makes  the  economic  condition  what 
it  is. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  wherever  a  situation 
is  desirable,  mankind  usually  claims  the  credit  of 
creating  it.  Rut  wherever  a  situation  is  faulty  and 
self -destructive  and  full  of  injustice  and  pain,  man- 
kind has  a  tendency  to  charge  that  up  to  "nature." 
So  you  will  find  a  large  proportion  of  partisans  claim- 
ing that  it  is  the  economic  system  which  makes  men 
what  they  are.  They  blame  the  faults  of  our  industrial 
system  for  all  the  faults  which  we  behold  in  mankind 
generally. 

And  you  will  find  other  men  who  say  that  man  cre- 
ates his  own  conditions ;  that  if  the  economic,  in- 
dustrial or  social  system  is  bad,  it  is  but  a  reflection 
of  what  Man  himself  is ;  his  social  conditions  being 
determined  by  his  own  nature. 

It  may  be  true,  of  course,  that  these  things  inter- 
act;  it  probably  is  true.  But  it  would  be  hard  to  gain- 
say that  the  point  of  beginning,  the  casual  motive 
power,  is  in  man  himself. 

What  is  wrong  in  our  industrial  system,  for  ex- 
ample, is  a  reflection  of  what  is  wrong  in  man  him- 
self. But  there  is  no  doubt  that  after  he  has  created 
this  wrong  system,  it  begins  to  react  upon  him  in  puni- 
tive or  other  influential  ways.  That  is,  character  acts 
upon  conditions,  and  conditions  upon  character — an 
endless  interaction. 


FORD    IDEALS 


It  ought  not  to  be  hard  to  admit  this.  In  fact,  it 
seldom  is  hard  when  we  remove  the  matter  far  enough 
from  our  own  concerns.  Teachers  dislike  to  admit 
that  the  faults  of  the  educational  system  are  their  own 
faults  writ  large.  Physicians  dislike  to  admit  that 
the  faults  of  the  present  systems  of  medicine  are  their 
own  deficiencies  organized.  Manufacturers  hesitate  to 
admit  that  the  mistakes  of  the  present  industrial  meth- 
ods are,  in  part  at  least,  their  own  mistakes  system- 
atized and  extended.  But  take  the  question  outside 
of  a  man's  immediate  concerns,  and  he  sees  the  point 
readily  enough. 

The  workman  has  no  trouble  whatever  in  seeing 
that  the  faults  of  modern  business  systems  are  not 
and  cannot  be  anything  other  than  the  faults  of  busi- 
ness men  themselves ;  because  business  men  make  busi- 
ness systems.  The  business  man  sees  just  as  readily 
that  the  faults  of  labor  organizations  are  the  faults  of 
workingmen  themselves. 

And  all  of  us  together — the  whole  of  human  so- 
ciety— make  the  social  system. 

Now,  if  yovi  allow  relentless  logic  to  take  its  course 
with  this  form  of  statement,  and  begin  to  speak  of 
reforming  the  social  system,  then  you  find  yourself 
confronted  at  once  with  the  problem  of  making  a 
profound  and  complete  change  in  human  nature.  And 
that  is  a  pretty  big  job.  It  has  never  been  accomplished 
wholesale. 

It  is  just  at  this  point  that  simon-pure  idealists 
mount  their  cloud-horses  and  soar  into  regions  where 
we  camiot  follow  them.  And  it  is  also  at  this  point 
that  our  so-called  "jiractical"  men  ])ropose  i)rograms 
that  fairly  clank  with  materialism. 

Why  is  it  that  so  many  fine  idealists  lose  all  con- 
tact with  reality?  And  why  is  it  that  so  many  hard- 
headed  practical  men  lose  so  completely  their  con- 
tact with  idealism? 

If  some  method  could  be  devised  by  which  ideal- 
ists could  be  anchored  to  an  anvil  .-uid  a  sledge  ham- 
mer, and  hard-headed  jjractical  men  enlightened  and 
refined  by  a  dash  of  X'ision  and  an  infusion  of  a 
venturesome   and    divine   belicl'    in    ihc    snpremacv    of 


HUMAN    NATURK    AND    THK    SOllAI,    SVSTKM 

righteousness,  then  we  should  sec  both  these  types 
yield  more  useful   service  to  their  kind. 

W'e  should  be  slow  about  drawing  conclusions 
before  we  have  all  our  data. 

No  doubt,  with  a  less  faulty  human  nature  than 
ours  is,  a  less  faulty  social  system  would  have  grown 
up.  Or,  if  human  nature  were  worse  than  it  is,  a 
worse  system  would  have  grown  up ;  though  probably 
a  worse  system  would  not  have  lasted  so  long  as  the 
present  one  has.  It  is  only  its  good  points  that  have 
kept  ours  in  force  so  long. 

But,  things  being  as  they  arc,  there  are  very  few 
who  will  claim  that  mankind  deliberately  set  out  to 
create  a  faulty  social  system.  Granting  without  re- 
serve that  all  the  faults  of  the  social  system  are  in  Man 
himself,  it  does  not  follow  that  he  deliberately  organ- 
ized his  imperfections  and  established  them.  We 
shall  have  to  charge  a  great  deal  up  to  ignorance,  shall 
we  not?  We  shall  have  to  charge  a  great  deal  up  to 
a  certain  innocence  as  well.  Take  the  beginnings  of 
our  present  industrial  system,  for  example.  There 
was  then  no  indication  as  to  how  it  would  grow,  nor 
as  to  the  points  in  which  it  would  show  its  greatest 
imperfection.  Everyone  was  glad  to  see  it  begin. 
Every  new  advance  was  hailed  with  joy.  No  one 
ever  thought  of  "capital"  and  "labor"  as  hostile  in- 
terests. No  one  ever  dreamed  that  the  very  fact  of 
success  would  bring  insidious  dangers  with  it. 

;\nd  yet  with  growth  every  imperfection  latent  in 
the  system  came  to  light.  .V  man's  business  grew  to 
such  proportions  that  he  had  to  have  more  helpers 
than  he  knew  by  their  first  names;  but  that  fact  was 
not  regretted,  it  was  rather  hailed  with  joy.  And  vet 
see  what  it  has  since  led  to  ! — an  impersonal  system 
wherein  the  workman  has  become  something  less  than 
flesh  and  blood,  a  mere  part  of  a  system. 

No  one  believes,  of  c(.)in'se.  that  this  dehumanizing 
])rocess  was  deliberately  invented.  It  just  grew.  It 
was  latent  in  the  whole  early  system,  but  no  one  saw 
it  and  no  one  could  foresee  it.  Onlv  prodigious  and 
unheard  of  development  could  bring  it  to  light. 

But  there  is  yet  another  consideration  which  the 
tirst  set  of  facts  does  not  include.    Take  the  industrial 


FORD    IDEALS 


idea;  what  is  it?  The  true  industrial  idea  is  not  to 
make  money.  The  industrial  idea  is  to  express  a 
serviceable  idea,  duplicate  a  useful  idea,  by  as  many 
thousands  as  there  are  people  who  need  it.  To  pro- 
duce, produce ;  to  get  a  system  that  will  reduce  pro- 
duction to  a  finp  art;  to  put  production  on  such  a 
basis  as  will  provide  means  for  expansion  and  the 
building  of  still  more  shops,  the  production  of  still 
more  thousands  of  useful  things — that  is  the  real 
industrial  idea. 

"Yes,  but  what  about  the  workingmen?"  Ah,  that 
brings  us  to  the  point.  When  the  system  grows  by 
its  own  momentum  to  such  proportions  that  it  begins 
to  press  upon  fundamental  human  rights  or  to  violate 
fundamental  human  instincts,  the  social  question  arises. 

And  what  is  the  social  question?  Simply  the 
question  of  how  this  industrial  system  can  be  so  ad- 
justed as  to  recognize  human  rights. 

The  industrial  idea  did  not  start  out  with  the  in- 
tention of  violating  human  rights.  Nevertheless  that 
is  what  its  extreme  development  tended  to  do.  There- 
fore the  clash,  which  is  called  the  social  question. 

Here  again  we  approach  the  problem :  Which  is 
first,  human  nature  or  its  social  and  industrial  en- 
vironment? It  becomes  clear  that  once  a  system  and 
human  nature  come  into  conflict,  human  nature  and 
human  rights  represent  the  stronger  force.  Man- 
kind is  still  creative  enough  to  change  the  system  to 
conform  with  human  imperatives  of  Right. 

This  also  has  a  bearing  on  the  changeability  of 
human  nature.  Those  who  are  sometimes  discour- 
aged by  reflecting  upon  the  impossibility  of  changing 
human  nature  wholesale  and  for  the  better,  thus 
changing  the  social  system  for  the  better  also,  should 
carry  their  reflections  a  little  further.  They  should 
reflect  on  the  impossibility  of  any  system,  no  matter 
how  important,  changing  human  nature  enough  to 
make  it  content  with  violations  of  its  needs  and  rights. 
Let  any  system  of  government,  industry  or  business 
curtail  or  contravene  fundamental  human  rights,  and 
it  is  not  human  nature  that  changes — it  is  that  system! 

So  that,  after  all,  the  inflexibility  of  human  na- 
ture may  be  our  most  hopeful  fact. 

152 


HUMAN    NATURE   AND   THE    SOCIAL    SYSTEM 

We  all  know,  we  all  feel,  that  the  only  way  by 
which  human  nature  at  large  could  be  influenced  to 
condone  or  support  a  bad  system  of  any  kind,  would 
be  to  render  that  bad  system  profitable  to  humanity  at 
large. 

Now,  we  know  that  no  bad  system  can  be  profitable 
to  humanity  at  large.  A  system  universally  and  un- 
exceptionally  bad  would  simply  collapse.  It  would 
be  like  trying  to  maintain  a  sound  currency  system  in 
a  nation  of  counterfeiters ;  it  would  simply  be  impos- 
sible. The  counterfeit  has  its  fleeting  value  simply 
because  the  mass  of  money  is  sound.  And  unfair, 
greedy,  inhuman,  wicked  systems  last  as  long  as  they 
do  only  because  the  opposite  majority  qualities  give 
them  room  for  profitable  play. 

No  doubt  the  faultiness  of  human  nature  is  the 
cause  of  the  faultiness  of  our  social  system.  But 
equally  without  doubt  the  faultiness  of  our  social 
system  is  not  the  intention  of  humanity,  else  the  faults 
would  not  be  so  universally  denounced  and  opposed. 

Our  ignorance  is  responsible  for  the  faults  being 
there,  but  it  is  our  incorrigible  desire  for  public  and 
social  righteousness  that  makes  it  impossible  for  the 
faults  to  remain  there  forever. 

Mankind  is  not  perfect  by  any  means.  But  man- 
kind has  not  yet  given  its  collective  vote  to  the  Devil. 


15J 


The  Modern  City — 
A  Pestiferous  Growth 


THE  modern  City,  with  its  suppression  of  all  that 
is  sweet  in  its  natural  environment,  its  enforce- 
ment of  artificial  modes  of  living,  its  startling  dis- 
parities of  leisure  and  employment,  its  hideous  ex- 
tremes of  self-conscious  wealth  and  abject  poverty,  is 
probably  the  most  unlovely  sight  this  planet  can  of- 
fer ;  certainly  it  represents  the  most  unwholesome  con- 
dition that  challenges  our  thought  today. 

For  the  City  concentrates  within  its  limits  the  es- 
sence of  all  that  is  wrong,  artificial,  wayward  and 
unjust  in  our  social  life.  It  is,  as  it  were,  the  spot 
where  the  internal  social  impurities  break  out  in  a 
festering  sore. 

Much  discussion  has  been  devoted  to  "the  prob- 
lem of  the  City,"  but  for  the  most  part  it  has  shuttled 
back  and  forth  between  a  liking  for  community  life  and 
a  liking  for  the  companionship  of  nature,  between 
the  City  lover  and  the  country  lover — and,  of  course, 
that  is  not  the  question  at  all. 

A  Cit}'  is  a  camp  that  has  become  stagnant  and 
which  grows  l)y  accretion.  A  City  is  a  camp  that 
has  ceased  to  march,  a  communitv  that  has  called  a 
halt. 

1  here  will  be  no  argument  in  this  page  against  the 
desirability  of  a  settled  life.  Nor  will  there  be  any 
assertion  of  the  superiority  of  that  phase  of  society 
where  the  peoi)le  followed  their  flocks  as  their  flocks 
moved  hither  and  thither  seeking  pasture. 

It  was  doubtless  a  milestone  of  progress  when  men 
began  to  plant  vineyards,  for  vineyards  have  to  be 
tended,  and  tending  them  keeps  the  vine-dresser  resi- 
dent in  one  place. 

But  to  recognize  the  advantage  of  settled  com- 
munity life  is  not  to  put  in  a  plea  for  the  modern 
City,    for   it   is   doubtful    if    the   modern   City   can   be 

154 


THE    MODERN    CITY — A    PESTIFEROUS  GROWTH 

considered  as  in  any  sense  a  community.  Oh,  we 
call  it  a  community,  of  course ;  we  talk  a  great  deal 
about  community  spirit,  and  the  like ;  but  anyone 
who  knows  the  modern  City  knows  that  it  is  not  a 
community — it  is  any  number  of  communities,  few  of 
them  sympathetic  one  to  another. 

The  modern  City  is  broken  into  as  many  com- 
munities as  there  are  interests  in  it,  and  the  modern 
City  is  the  great  meeting  place  of  all  our  social  antag- 
onisms, both  those  that  are  engendered  by  dilTerences 
in  taste  and  culture  and  those  which  grow  out  of 
economic  causes.  The  result  is  that  such  communi- 
ties as  we  have  are  antagonistic,  competitive,  mutually 
exclusive. 

The  modern  City  is  a  classic  illustration  of  what 
ensues  when  we  fail  to  mix  the  arts. 

The  three  great  arts  are  Agriculture,  Manufacture 
and  Transportation. 

The  City  automatically  excludes  agriculture  as  one 
of  the  arts  possible  to  its  inhabitants ;  it  does  this  be- 
cause the  land  whereon  it  stands  is  too  crowded  for 
the  soil  to  exercise  its  natural  function,  and  where  it 
is  not  occupied  by  buildings  it  is  overlaid  with  pave- 
ment. 

Manufacture  was  the  center  around  which  the 
City  grew.  It  may  have  been  a  very  simple  form  of 
manufacture  at  first,  like  the  making  of  flour  out  of 
grain,  or  the  making  of  shoes  out  of  hides,  or  the  mak- 
ing of  cloth  out  of  wool. 

But  wherever  a  productive  machine  is  set  up  with 
a  roof  over  it  and  o[)cratives  around  it,  there  the  City 
begins. 

There  are  two  bases  for  (he  community,  one  a 
necessity  of  nature,  the  (ither  a  necessity  of  progress. 
Man  \vas  not  made  for  solitude,  lie  is  gregarious. 
Not  only  "hath  lie  set  the  solitary  in  families,"  as 
the  Scripture  has  it,  but  families  also  group  with 
other  families,  and  as  the  individual  finds  his  ful- 
fillment in  the  family,  so  the  family  finds  its  fulfill- 
ment in  the  community. 

Then,  again,  i)rogress  is  not  solitary.  We  can  do 
few  things  alone.  Directly  we  undertake  to  achieve 
worth-while    results    in    the    physical    world,    we    dis- 


FORD    IDEALS 


cover  that  we  need  help.  We  discover  also  that  men 
delight  to  work  together,  that  they  are  formed  for 
creative  co-operation. 

So  that  it  is  a  far  different  thing  to  condemn  the 
City  than  to  condemn  the  community.  The  community 
is  natural.     The  City  is  not. 

It  is  the  one-sided,  lopsided  development  of  in- 
dustry, as  industry  is  represented  by  the  manufacture 
of  articles  of  use  and  commerce,  that  is  primarily  re- 
sponsible for  the  modern  City — that,  and  the  neglect 
of  the  other  two  arts,  agriculture  and  transportation. 

In  our  day,  however,  transportation  is  beginning 
to  catch  up.  It  is  still  far  from  what  it  ought  to  be, 
but  it  is  immeasurably  better  than  once  it  was.  And 
as  a  result,  the  City  is  beginning  to  feel  the  influence 
of  an  art  that  will  be  one  of  the  chief  forces  in  its 
undoing. 

At  first  it  seemed  as  if  transportation  would  have 
the  effect  of  further  augmenting  the  City,  but  now 
it  is  effecting  a  spreading  out  of  cities  and  popula- 
tions. The  suburban  car  and  the  automobile  have 
rendered  confinement  within  the  City  unnecessary  for 
large  numbers  of  people.  And  one  of  the  most  hope- 
ful facts  is  that,  whereas  only  the  well-to-do  once 
found  it  possible  to  get  away  from  the  city,  now  the 
workingman  finds  it  not  only  possible  but  advantageous 
to  live  in  the  country,  and  thousands  of  them  are 
doing  it  even  while  they  work  in  the  City. 

And  as  transportation  facilities  become  better  and 
more  numerous,  this  movement  to  the  country  will  be 
increased. 

The  "problem  of  the  City"  is  a  bundle  of  the  most 
baffling  problems  we  know.  It  not  only  includes  prob- 
lems of  health,  morals,  administration  and  economics, 
but  problems  which  go  deep  into  the  very  nature  of 
man. 

The  solution  of  this  problem  has  eluded  our  best 
minds  for  decades  and  decades.  In  spite  of  all  the 
expenditure  of  money  and  thought,  all  the  sacrifice  of 
labor  and  spirit,  "the  problem  of  the  City"  grows  more 
acute  instead  of  easier. 

And  what  is  the  answer  to  this? 

Plainly,  so  it  seems  to  some  of  us,  that  the  ulti- 

156 


THE   MODERN  CITY — A  PESTIFEROUS  GROWTH 

mate  solution  will  be  the  abolition  of  the  City,  its 
abandonment  as  a  blunder. 

There  are  a  number  of  movements  all  converging 
to  this  end — some  of  them  in  utter  unconsciousness 
of  this  end — and  not  the, least  of  them  is  a  certain 
theory  of  taxation  which  has  seized  upon  the  minds 
and  imaginations  of  the  people.  Nothing  will  finally 
work  more  effectively  to  undo  the  fateful  grip  which 
the  City  habit  has  taken  upon  the  people,  than  the 
destruction  of  the  fictitious  land  values  which  the  City 
traditions  have  set  up  and  maintained. 

We  shall  solve  the  City  Problem  by  leaving  the 
City. 

Get  the  people  into  the  country,  get  them  into 
communities  where  a  man  knows  his  neighbor,  where 
there  is  a  commonality  of  interest,  where  life  is  not 
artificial,  and  you  have  solved  the  City  Problem.  You 
have  solved  it  by  eliminating  the  City.  City  life  was 
always  artificial  and  cannot  be  made  anything  else. 
An  artificial  form  of  life  breeds  its  own  disorders, 
and  these  cannot  be  "solved."  There  is  nothing  to 
do  but  abandon  the  course  that  gives  rise  to  them. 

There  is  nothing  impossible  or  unusual  in  this. 
We  have  seen  in  our  own  day  cities  spring  up  in  a 
month.  Well,  if  our  people  should  be  made  free  of 
the  soil  in  their  own  country,  you  would  see  whole 
cities  shrink  to  nothing  in  the  same  length  of  time. 

Nothing  can  long  exist  that  is  not  self-sustaining. 
The  City  is  not  self-sustaining.  No  American  City — 
and  we  are  the  best  fortified  in  the  world  in  this  re- 
spect— could  survive,  without  suffering,  a  single  week's 
interruption  in  the  traffic  in  supplies  from  the  farm. 

The  farm  is  self-sustaining.  The  City  can  serve 
the  farm  with  regard  to  conveniences,  but  not  with 
essentials.  Essentially,  the  farm  is  complete  within 
itself. 

The  City  has  exercised  its  illicit  charm  to  draw  to 
itself  the  very  people  on  whose  devotion  to  the  art 
of  agriculture  it  depended  for  its  livelihood.  As  a 
result  of  this  overgrowth  of  the  City  at  the  expense 
of  the  farm,  the  City  is  now  finding  it  hard  to  live. 
When  the  City  is  driven  out  to  get  food,  it  nnist  go 
to  the  farm.    And  that  is  where  it  is  going  now. 

157 


FORD    IDEALS 


The  balance  of  life — in  all  its  aspects — can  only 
be  preserved  by  a  natural  balance  in  the  attention  given 
to  all  three  major  arts — Agriculture,  Manufacture  and 
Transportation — without  which,  or  in  the  neglect  of 
any  of  which,  nothing  goes  very  far. 

And-  the  best  way  to  obtain  this  balance,  as  we  are 
beginning  to  learn,  is  to  have  the  same  people  prac- 
tice more  than  one  of  them. 

As  has  been  previously  stated  in  these  pages,  there 
is  no  sound  reason  whatever  why  one  immense  group 
of  men  should  be  conhned  within  factory  walls  all  the 
year  round  simply  because  they  happen  to  live  in  the 
City,  and  there  is  just  as  little  reason  why  another 
large  group  of  persons  should  be  confined  to  their 
farm-acres  all  the  year  round  just  because  they  hap- 
pen to  be  farmers. 

Agriculture  would  be  better  served  if  the  man- 
power of  the  manufacturing  interests  were  devoted  to 
it  a  part  of  the  time  every  year,  and  manufacturing 
would  be  better  served  if  the  man-power  of  the  farms 
could  change  occupation  during  the  season  when  the 
ground  is  resting.  And  the  life  of  everybody,  the 
physical  and  economic  life,  would  be  benefited.  Be- 
sides which,  small  manufacturing  centers  would  dot 
all  our  countrysides,  and  wide  farming  areas  would 
encircle  our  present  dense  communities,  relieving 
them  of  congested  abnormality,  and  the  country  of 
its  unnatural   loneliness   and  scparatencss. 

The  mingling  of  the  arts  will  help  restore  us  to 
economic  balance  and  racial  sanity. 


158 


Catching  the  Boss's  Eye 


IT  IS  most  unfortunate  that  we  are  so  strongly  under 
the  influence  of  the  idea  that  to  catch  somehody's 
eye,  to  attract  admiring  attention,  to  get  full  credit 
for  what  we  do,  is  the  one  element  which  we  must  not 
omit  from  any  effort  we  make;  that  to  do  a  piece  of 
work  and  not  get  the  credit  for  it  is  little  less  than  a 
calamity. 

Not  very  long  ago  it  was  urged  in  an  article  in- 
tended to  stimulate  the  amhition  of  young  men,  that 
they  should  endeavor  strenuously  to  do  something  that 
would  catch  their  hoss's  eye. 

The  surprising  point  about  this  advice  is  that  it 
was  given  by  an  employer  himself.  Had  it  been  writ- 
ten by  an  aspiring  young  workman,  it  would  be  easy 
to  account  for ;  but  how  a  boss  could  utter  such  coun- 
sel is  beyond  ordinary  power  to  explain. 

If  all  our  productive  operations  were  manned  by 
men  who  were  straining  to  catch  the  boss's  eye,  in- 
dustry would  become  a  sort  of  vaudeville,  a  game  of 
catch-as-catch-can,  a  race  for  recognition. 

Of  course,  there  are  certain  factors  in  this  desire 
for  recognition  which  must  be  reckoned  with  before 
we  can  deal  intelligently  with  it. 

It  is  beyond  dispute  that  our  modern  industrial 
system  has  wari)ed  this  drsire  terribly  out  of  shape 
and  rendered  it  almost  an  obsession.  There  was  a 
time  when  a  man's  personal  advancement  depended 
eiUirely  and  immediately  upon  his  work,  and  uo\ 
upon  anyone's  favor;  but  nowadays  it  depends  far  too 
much,  as  we  all  know,  upon  the  individual's  good  for- 
tune in  catching  sonic  intluential  e\e. 

It  is  perfectlv  clear  that  as  long  as  this  situation 
exists,  men  will  strivi'  to  meet  it;  that  is,  men  will 
work  with  the  idea  of  catching  soniebodv's  e\e  ;  thcv 
will  work  with  the  idea  thai  il"  tlu'v  t'ail  to  get  credit 
tor  what  tlie\-  do.  thc\-  iniglil  ;is  well  ha\e  done  il 
badl\-  or  not   ha\c  done  it   at   all. 


FORD    IDEALS 

One  result  of  this,  as  far  as  the  work  itself  is 
concerned,  is  that  it  becomes  a  secondary  considera- 
tion. The  job  we  are  doing,  the  article  we  are  pro- 
ducing, the  special  kind  of  service  we  are  rendering, 
turns  out  to  be  not  our  principal  work  at  all.  No. 
Our  main  work  is  our  personal  advancement.  This 
thing  we  are  doing  now  is  not  being  done  for  its  own 
sake,  this  service  we  are  doing  is  not  being  done  be- 
cause it  is  a  service,  but  because  it  is  a  platform  from 
which  we  may  practice  the  art  of  catching  somebody's 
eye,  the  art  of  skillfully  attracting  credit-bringing  at- 
tention to  ourselves. 

Now,  we  submit,  this  habit  of  making  the  work 
secondary  and  the  recognition  primary,  is  unfair  to 
the  work.  It  makes  recognition  and  credit  our  real 
job,  while  the  job  we  are  paid  to  do  is  used  merely  as 
a  kicking-off  place. 

And  it  also  has  an  unfortunate  effect  on  the  worker. 
It  encourages  a  peculiar  kind  of  ambition  which  is 
neither  lovely  nor  productive.  It  produces  the  kind 
who  imagine  that  by  "standing  in  with  the  boss"  they 
will  get  ahead.  Every  shop  knows  this  kind  of  man. 
And  the  worst  of  it  is  there  are  some  things  in  our 
present  industrial  system  which  make  it  appear  that 
this  kind  of  game  really  pays.  Foremen  are  only  hu- 
man, and  it  is  natural  that  they  should  be  flattered 
by  being  made  to  believe  that  they  hold  the  weal  or 
woe  of  workmen  in  their  hands.  It  is  natural  also, 
that  being  open  to  flattery,  their  self-seeking  sub- 
ordinates should  flatter  them  still  more  to  obtain  and 
profit  by  their  favor. 

The  trend  of  industry  is  and  ought  to  be  farther 
and  farther  away  from  a  condition  which  gives  any 
individual  the  power  of  life  and  death^ — for  that  is 
virtually  what  bread-and-butter  power  is — over  an- 
other. We  don't  want  a  race  of  overseers  who  fancy 
they  control  human  destiny ;  and  we  don't  want  a  race 
of  workmen  who  think  they  have  to  cringe  and  cajole 
to  get  recognition  of  their  merits. 

The  desire  for  recognition  is  natural.  But  it  is 
far  from  being  the  highest  desire.  The  real  work- 
man knows  that  his  work  is  his  unanswerable  witness. 
Far  higher  than  the  desire  for  recognition  is  the  cre- 

160 


CATCHING  THE  BOSS  S   EYE 


ative  desire,  which  finds  its  satisfaction  in  work  well 
done  whether  anyone  sees  that  it  is  well  done  or  not. 

But  of  course,  some  modern  industrial  conditions 
tend  to  smother  that  kind  of  workmanship.  Wherever 
the  emphasis  is  on  quantity  at  the  expense  of  quality, 
wherever  the  emphasis  is  on  profits  at  the  expense  of 
service,  wherever  the  commercial  side  of  production 
is  emphasized  at  the  cost  of  the  human  and  service- 
able side,  then  the. workman  finds  himself  in  a  sort 
of  scramble  for  selfish  benefits  whether  of  money, 
rank  or  job,  and  he  can  hardly  help  becoming  infected 
with  the  regenerate  tendency. 

Now,  everyone  will  agree  that  the  person  who  is 
over-anxious  about  getting  credit  for  what  he  does 
is  not  an  impressive  person,  to  say  the  least.  But  he 
may  not  be  entirely  blamable,  either. 

He  may  be  a  product  of  that  false  philosophy  of 
life  which  teaches  that  a  man  is  successful  only  in- 
sofar as  he  gets  credit  for  being  so ;  and  believing  that, 
he  may  perhaps  also  have  the  experience  of  credit 
unjustly  withheld  from  him,  and  so  he  grows  over- 
anxious. One  false  extreme  has  simply  worked  an- 
other false  extreme  in  him.  He  is  to  be  pitied  and 
led  out  of  his  obsession.  Certainly,  he  is  not  to  be 
dealt  with  in  a  way  that  would  deepen  his  sense  of 
injustice.  The  sense  of  personal  injustice  is  one  of 
the  most  painful  burdens  a  man  can  bear  about  with 
him. 

Just  where  to  draw  the  line  between  a  laudable 
desire  for  recognition  and  an  overwhelming  thirst 
for  credit  is  not  easy  to  do ;  the  one  is  normal  and 
the  other  is  abnormal.  But  we  should  say  that  the 
line  of  demarcation  exists  somewhere  in  the  individ- 
ual's attitude  toward  the  work  he  is  doing. 

If  his  inclination  is  to  do  his  work  well  whether 
he  foresees  special  credit  or  not;  that  is.  if  he  has  a 
pride  in  his  work  quite  apart  from  its  possible  rela- 
tion to  other  men's  opinions,  then  it  would  be  probably 
safe  to  say  that  his  desire  for  recognition  would  be 
normal. 

But  if  his  work  means  no  more  to  him  than  an 
emblem  with  which  to  attract  attention,  if  when  with- 
out any  hope  of  recognition  for  the  particular  job  on 


FORD    IDEALS 


which  he  is  engaged,  he  slurs  it  over  and  neglects  it, 
then  it  is  apparent  that  his  desire  for  recognition  is 
not  born  of  high  workmanly  pride,  but  of  selfish  per- 
sonal interest  of  a  rather  small  caliber. 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  declare  that  good  work 
always  is  seen  and  recognized,  but  it  would  scarcely 
be  true..  There  is  far  too  much  work  produced  for 
all  of  it  to  be  judged  accurately.  But  it  would  be 
absolutely  true  to  declare  that  a  good  workman  is  al- 
ways seen  and  recognized.  His  work  may  escape  ob- 
servation ;  he  himself  cannot  well  do  so.  All  the 
carefulness,  dependability,  honest  pride  and  power 
he  builds  into  his  work  is  somehow  built  back  into 
himself.  It  is  reflected  back  upon  him.  And,  of 
course,  that  kind  of  shining  cannot  long  be  hidden. 
For  it  is  a  matter  of  character  then,  not  merely  of 
articles  of  manufacture. 

The  matter  of  personal  advancement  is  one  which 
is  not  considered  as  carefully  as  it  ought  to  be.  And 
much  of  the  misconception  concerning  one's  credit 
for  one's  work  grows  out  of  the  kind  of  idea  of  ad- 
vancement which  he  may  hold. 

A  great  evil  was  begun  when  the  sphere  of  ad- 
vancement was  placed  outside  of  the  job  instead  of 
within  it. 

Nowadays  advancement  means  getting  out  of  one's 
job  into  another  job,  if  one  can.  It  doesn't  mean  be- 
coming a  better  workman  at  what  you  are  doing;  it 
means  becoming  a  workman  at  something  else,  at  an- 
other rate  of  ])ay,  and  with  another  degree  of  respect 
attaching  to  your   rank. 

C)f  course,  when  this  kind  of  advancement  means 
also  more  of  the  means  and  comforts  of  life,  more  of 
the  o}:)])ortunities  which  one  would  give  to  one's  fam- 
ily, nothing  short  of  cosmic  suppression  could  prevent 
men  from  striving  for  it. 

Thus  the  competitive  element  is  injected  into  life. 
And  we  are  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  when  these 
things,  the  means  and  comforts  of  life,  the  desirable 
opportunities  v\hich  one  would  give  to  one's  familv — 
when  these  things  are  left  at  the  peril  of  the  bread- 
winner's success  or  failure  in  a  mad  com])etitive  scram- 
ble   for    this    favor    called    "advancement."    then    oiu" 


CATCHING    THE    BOSS  S     EVE 

system  of  life  is  sadly  in  need  of  humanizing  readjust- 
ment. 

Under  the  present  strife  and  strain  men  are  not 
free  to  consider  their  work  alone,  they  are  driven  to 
consider  the  methods — fair  and  unfair — by  which 
they  may  attract  attention,  win  favor  and  gain  ad- 
vancement. 

If  men  were  assured  that  their  livelihood  and  re- 
spect as  members  of  society  were  assured  from  the 
beginning,  then  we  should  have  a  sounder  foundation 
on  which  to  appeal  to  them  to  make  their  advance- 
ment within  the  limits  of  their  work. 

But  this  subject  of  advancement  deserves  atten- 
tion by  itself.  Suffice  it  now  to  say  that  if  a  man  has 
faith  to  trust  his  future  to  the  quality  of  his  work, 
the  chances  are  very  high  that  his  faith  will  be  re- 
warded. The  strength  of  faith  is  that  it  does  not  look 
for  the  reward ;  it  does  not  demand  what  one  deserves, 
it  only  asks  that  one  be  deserving. 

By  doing  the  thing  for  which  you  know  you  may 
get  no  credit,  you  are  doing  something  which  will 
never  be  lost  to  you — you  are  building  certain  qualities 
which  cannot  be  hidden. 

One  of  the  commonest  faults  observable  in  men 
is  that-  they  overreach  for  credit.  And,  of  course, 
where  one  overreaches  one  does  not  receive.  After 
all.  we  must  leave  a  little  of  our  lives  to  Destiny. 


Patriotism  an  Inclusive 
Emotion 


LOVE  of  country  is  a  sentiment  'inherent  in  men. 
There  is  a  sacred  element  in  the  spirit  of  patriot- 
ism for  this  reason.  No  matter  how  hard  the  land 
may  have  been  to  the  dwellers  thereon,  no  matter  how 
harsh  the  governmental  conditions  imposed,  no  matter 
how  bitter  the  memories  which  thoughts  of  native 
land  evoke,  no  matter  how  unfavorably  the  place  of 
our  nativity  may  compare  with  the  land  of  our  adop- 
tion, there  is  still  an  ineradicable  love  of  country  which 
is  a  vital  part  of  us  from  the  earliest  dawn  of  our 
consciousness  until  the  last  shadows  begin  to  close 
in  upon  us. 

It  is  inconceivable  that  there  could  exist,  outside 
the  pages  of  fiction,  a  man  who,  regardless  of  griev- 
ances, was  without  a  special  love  for  some  branch 
of  the  human  race,  some  division  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face, some  city,  state  or  bit  of  homestead. 

All  our  love  of  the  earth  begins  in  love  for  our 
own  land.  All  our  love  for  Humanity  begins  in  love 
for  our  own  people.  All  our  love  for  Freedom  begins 
in  love  for  our  own  institutions. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  depth  of  the  patriotic 
sentiment,  look  at  the  Irish.  With  their  memories  of 
their  native  land  deeply  colored  by  suflfering,  how 
they  cling  to  Erin  still !  How  they  laud  her  as  the 
fairest  among  the  isles ! 

Or  take  the  Jew.  He  has  been  without  a  flag  and 
a  country  these  twenty  centuries,  yet  how  his  heart- 
strings twine  about  old  Jerusalem,  the  glories  of  her 
past  and  the  greater  glories  prophesied  for  her  future ! 

It  is  not  merely  because  the  land  feeds  us  and 
caresses  vis  and  gives  us  pleasant  lives  that  we  love  it. 
Men  have  most  deeply  loved  the  lands  where  they  have 
suffered  most.  Patriotism  in  its  i)urity  is  not  a  selfish 
sordid  sentiment. 


PATRIOTISM    AN    INCLUSIVE    EMOTION 

Of  course,  every  virtue  has  its  counterfeit,  every 
noble  principle  has  its  superticial  imitation.  The  more 
sacred  the  principle  the  more  readily  is  it  seized  upon 
by  designing  persons  to  lend  an  air  of  genuineness  to 
their  questionable  purposes.  This  needs  no  proof. 
We  see  it  with  reference  to  every  lofty  sentiment,  not 
patriotism  only. 

The  principal  fallacy  to  which — not  real  patriotism, 
mark  you — false  patriotism  succumbs  is  the  fallacy  of 
exclusiveness.  Because  we  love  one  country  we  must 
suspect  the  motives  and  defeat  the  purposes  of  all 
other  countries — that  is  the  fallacy. 

It  is  commonly  reported,  of  course,  that  those  who 
remember  that  they  are  members  of  the  Human  Race 
as  well  as  of  their  own  nationality,  are  promoting  the 
doctrine  that  a  man  ought  to  love  all  countries,  his 
own  no  more  than  another. 

Aside  from  this  being  merely  theoretical,  it  is  im- 
possible. No  man  ever  has  or  ever  can  love  another 
people  as  he  loves  his  own,  another  land  as  he  loves 
his  own,  or  other  institutions  as  he  loves  his  own. 

He  may  wisely  acknowledge  the  worth  and  beauty 
of  the  other  land,  the  greatness  and  usefulness  of  the 
other  people,  the  wisdom  and  character  of  the  other 
institutions — but  this  is  not  patriotic  love.  He  may 
even  see  that  the  other  land  is  more  desirable  from 
many  points  of  view,  that  the  other  people  are  more 
highly  developed  and  more  efficient,  that  the  other  in- 
stitutions are  more  advanced;  yet  he  will  but  love  his 
own  the  more  and  covet  for  them  the  good  character- 
istics of  the  others.  We  cannot  get  away  from  these 
facts.     They  are  written  in  our  very  hearts. 

All  love  is  given  us  for  purposes  of  inclusion,  not 
exclusion,  because  love  is  an  expansive  emotion.  This 
is  a  truth  which  everyone  will  readily  acknowledge. 
We  have  a  respect  for  the  women  of  other  races  be- 
cause we  respect  the  mothers,  wives  and  daughters 
of  our  own.'  We  have  a  heart  for  the  welfare  of  all 
children  because  we  have  a  lieart  for  the  welfare  of 
our  own.  And  so  on.  We  are  able  to  uiulerstand. 
sympathize,  respect,  solely  because  we  know  from 
our  own  experience  what  the  situation  is.  That  is 
why  we   respect  an  alien's  patriotic  love    for  his  own 


FORD    IDEALS 

country.  We  know  that  sentiment  in  ourselves ;  there- 
fore, we  respect  it  in  him. 

But  reasoning  from  the  analogy  of  the  social  af- 
fections a  distinction  should  be  made:  there  is  a  love 
of  attachment  and  a  love  of  respect.  Our  domestic 
affections  form  personal  attachments.  But  there  are 
people  on  the  other  side  of  the  city,  in  another  city, 
or  in  another  country,  with  whom  we  should  be  very 
loth  to  form  personal  attachments — with  whom,  in- 
deed, nature  would  prevent  us  forming  personal  at- 
tachments— yet  whose  rights  as  men  we  cherish  as 
strongly  as  we  cherish  our  own.     Isn't  that  true? 

You  don't  have  to  be  willing  to  live  in  the  same 
house  with  a  man  in  order  to  cherish  his  rights  as  a 
man  and  citizen.  By  virtue  of  his  membership  in  the 
human  race  you  are  "for"  him  in  the  protection  of 
certain  fundamental  rights  which  as  a  human  being 
he  possesses,  and  which  neither  a  difference  in  speech 
nor  allegiance  can  change.  We  know  men  as  men, 
not  as  nationals.  We  know  them  as  human  beings. 
That  is  our  primary  knowledge  of  men,  as  members 
of  our  kind. 

There  is  a  profoundly  natural  element  in  patriotism. 
But  something  tragically  artificial  marks  all  national 
antagonisms.  It  is  natural  that  a  man  should  love  his 
own  people  and  his  own  spot  of  earth ;  it  is  unnatural 
that  he  should  hate  another  people  or  another  spot  of 
earth  simply  because  it  is  not  his.  Love  of  our  own 
country  does  not  involve  hatred  of  other  countries. 
The  man  who  tries  to  prove  his  patriotism  by  the  ex- 
tent of  his  hatred  is  a  suspicious  patriot. 

In  other  words,  patriotism  is  not  an  exclusive  emo- 
tion— it  does  not  shut  out ;  it  lets  in.  And  though  we 
cannot  love  others  as  our  own,  we  can  still  love  the 
rights  of  others,  their  peace,  their  prosperity  and  the 
security  of  their  children.  The  moment  patriotism 
takes  wings  and  enters  the  spiritual  realm,  that  mo- 
ment it  blesses  all  people. 

If  there  is  any  one  quality  in  the  Genius  of  Amer- 
ica to  whose  existence  we  can  point  with  confidence, 
it  is  the  quality  of  heightened  regard  in  which  we 
hold  the  rights  of  all  peoples  on  the  earth — an  interna- 

166 


PATRIOTISM    AN    INCLUSIVE    EMOTION 

tionalism  of  sympathy  and  understanding  and  good 
wishes. 

The  United  States  never  has  and  never  will  be- 
come productive  soil  for  the  seeds  of  international 
hatred.  We  will  never  rise  against  lands  or  peoples 
to  do  them  harm ;  we  will  only  rise  against  the  ag- 
gressive Errors  of  which  lands  and  peoples  have  be- 
come the  self-deluded  servants ;  and  we  will  even  min- 
imize the  chances  of  having  to  do  that,  by  being  in 
the  world  the  friend  of  Light  and  Freedom. 

The  United  States  was  never  more  avowedly  the 
Servant  Nation  of  the  world  than  now.  And  never 
did  the  Servant  status  hold  nobler  honor. 

The  nations  whose  histories  are  embalmed  in  an- 
cient books,  whose  ruins  dot  the  desolation  of  desert 
lands,  fell  before  the  subtlest  temptation  that  can  ever 
lure  a  nation — the  temptation  to  Mastery.  To  bear 
world  rule,  to  make  vassals,  to  be  world  conqueror — 
this  is  the  rock  on  which  nations  have  made  ship- 
wrecks of  themselves.  They  forgot  the  eternal  Wis- 
dom which  taught :  "He  that  would  be  greatest 
among  you,  let  him  be  as  one  that  serveth." 

The  United  States  has  never  wanted  to  master  any 
nation.  The  utmost  expenditure  of  money  and  elo- 
quence and  influence  and  false  incentives  of  every 
kind,  has  utterly  failed  to  inoculate  our  people  even 
slightly  with  the  virus  of  imperialistic  ambition. 

Even  after  our  part  in  the  Great  War,  with  re- 
sults that  must  be  grateful  to  every  lover  of  Liberty 
and  Order,  we  find  ourselves  strangely  untainted  by 
the  animus  of  militarism.  We  did  what  we  had  to 
do,  we  did  it  as  well  as  we  could,  but  it  was  not  such 
business  as  we  would  care  to  be  doing  all  the  time. 

There  is  one  source  of  pride  to  every  American 
and  that  is,  though  we  broke  all  our  records  of  mil- 
itaristic preparation  and  achievement,  though  we 
gained  a  name  for  courage  and  initiative,  yet  with  the 
spoils  of  the  world  laid  down  before  us  we  have  kept 
faith  with  our  traditions  and  have  refused  one  iota  of 
reward.  The  nation  paid  in  blood  and  sweat  and 
sorrow^ — for  what  ?  l^^or  the  privilege  of  serving  the 
world  without  recompense. 

We  ought  to  think  more  of  our  own  United  States 

167 


FORD    IDEALS 

as  the  Servant  Nation  of  Mankind,  the  great,  strong, 
trustworthy,  righteous  nation  whose  joy  is  to  serve 
all  the  peoples  in  the  things  which  pertain  to  peace  and 
progress. 

In  proportion  to  our  population,  our  area,  our 
wealth,  and  the  extent  of  our  history,  there  are  fewer 
of  the  means  of  destruction  to  be  found  within  the 
boundaries  or  under  the  control  of  the  United  States 
than  of  any  other  nation.  Why?  Because  we  would 
rather  serve  than  enslave,  we  would  rather  help  than 
hurt,  we  would  rather  live  in  a  family  of  nations  than 
in  an  imperialistic  system  where  the  strongest  des- 
perado among  the  nations  ruled. 

Love  the  United  States!  Why,  even  if  the  United 
States  were  but  an  ideal,  but  a  dream,  but  an  Utopia 
written  in  books,  but  not  yet  realized  by  man,  we 
would  love  it !  Unrealized,  it  would  be  like  heaven. 
How  much  more,  then,  does  every  human  heart  on  the 
earth  love  the  real  United  States  ?  And  if  we  are  dis- 
trusted and  disliked  anywhere  it  is  because  some 
among  us,  forgetting  who  and  what  they  are,  have  said 
or  done  things  which  made  us  appear  in  a  light  less 
than  our  own. 

We  shall  keep  our  people  in  prosperity  and  our 
neighbors  in  peace  and  the  world  in  sanity  and  equi- 
poise by  going  quietly  about  our  mission  of  serving 
all  mankind  in  the  things  which  endure. 


False  "Success  Philosophy" 


THIRTY  years  ago  every  boy  in  the  United  States 
was  educated  in  the  idea  that  it  was  possible  for 
him  to  become  President  of  the  United  States,  that 
he  ought  to  aspire  to  that  position,  that  to  achieve  it 
would  represent  his  success ;  and,  of  course,  there 
was  a  great  waste  of  human  energy ;  we  only  needed 
four  or  five  men  for  that  job.  It  would  be  interesting 
to  know  how  many  of  our  Presidents  were  told  in 
their  boyhood  that  they  might  attain  that  office. 

We  do  not  waste  so  very  much  time  on  that  sort 
of  prospect  for  our  boys  nowadays. 

One  reason  may  be  our  increase  in  regard  for  the 
Presidency.  We  think  of  it  now  as  a  place  of  Destiny. 
We  judge  any  man  a  fool  who  would  seek  it  as  a 
personal  distinction.  We  have  seen  too  much  of  the 
responsibility  it  involves  to  make  it  the  sign  and  sym- 
bol of  any  man's  individual  success. 

But  perhaps  another  reason  is  that  our  idea  of 
Success  is  also  changing. 

There  has  been  a  great  falling  off  in  the  "Success 
philosophy"  recently,  as  you  may  have  noticed.  It 
was  rather  overdone  for  a  long  while.  Its  founda- 
tions were  false ;  its  motives  were  false ;  its  emphasis 
was  false.  Moreover,  it  is  doubtful  if  all  the  "pep" 
and  "ginger"  and  "hustle"  which  it  prescribed  has 
increased  the  Success  total  of  the  nation  one  degree. 

No  doubt  we  were  in  error  in  much  of  our  "Suc- 
cess" teaching;  not  in  insisting  that  everyone  ought 
to  be  a  Success,  but  in  defining  what  it  was. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  any  kind  of  Success 
which  would  put  us  all  in  administrative  ofiices,  and 
leave  none  of  us  out  on  the  farm  or  out  in  the  shop, 
would  be  rash. 

It  is  wrong  to  advocate  anything  which,  if  uni- 
versally applied,  would  ruin  the  world.  That  is  the 
difficulty  al)oiU  militarism:  it  says  that  a  stiff  bit  of 
war  now  and  then  is  a  mighty  fmc  idea;  but  immedi- 


FORD    IDEALS 


ately  you  apply  that  principle  universally,  what  have 
you  ?  A  universal  shambles !  On  the  other  hand, 
when  you  apply  pacifism  universally,  what  have  you? 
Universal  peace !  A  universal  shambles  would'  soon 
totally  destroy  all  life.  But  universal  peace  inter- 
feres with  nothing  that  does  good. 

What  would  be  the  result  if  this  thing  which  we 
are  advocating  were  to  be  applied  everywhere  in  ev- 
erything and  to  everybody? — that  is  the  question  we 
ought  to  ask  ourselves. 

And  if  we  are  advocating  something  which,  if  uni- 
versally adopted,  would  prove  destructive ;  or  some- 
thing which  depends  for  its  Success  on  a  large  sec- 
tion of  the  people  being  excluded  from  its  benefits, 
then  we  may  be  sure  it  is  a  fallacy. 

The  great  universals — those  things  which  if  ap- 
plied everywhere  to  everybody  would  be  beneficial — 
are  religion  in  the  moral  world,  order  in  the  social 
world,  and  fundamental  industry  in  the  physical 
world.  These  things  never  turn  destructive,  no  mat- 
ter how  widely  nor  how  thoroughly  applied. 

The  trouble  with  much  of  our  "Success"  doctrine, 
then,  was  this :  if  everybody  had  become  successful 
in  the  way  it  advocated,  this  would  have  been  very 
far  from  a  successful  world.  It  would  be  a  most 
tragically  unbalanced  world.  Not  that  failure  is 
needed  to  balance  Success — that  is  not  the  idea  at  all ; 
but  Success  must  have  certain  universal  qualities,  or 
it  is  not  Success  at  all. 

Several  weeks  ago  we  discussed  the  mistaken  idea 
that  one  had  to  catch  the  boss's  eye  in  order  to  obtain 
advancement.  This  matter  of  advancement  is  related 
to  what  we  are  discussing  now. 

The  principal  reason  the  majority  of  men  wish 
to  advance  is  that  it  means  more  material  reward  for 
them,  more  creature  comforts,  more  opportunities  for 
themselves  and  their  families. 

When  you  put  down  in  cold  print  that  here  in  this 
human  society  of  ours  there  is  a  majority  of  jobs 
which  do  not  yield  men  these  desirable  things,  and 
that  there  is  a  smaller  number  of  jobs  which  do  yield 
them,  and  for  this  smaller  number  the  whole  mass  of 
men  is  scrambling,  it  doesn't  seem  right,  does  it? 


170 


FALSE     SUCCESS  PHILOSOPHY 

When  a  man  gives  all  of  his  day  and  an  equal 
proportion  of  his  strength  and  ability  to  his  work,  and 
still  does  not  receive  as  many  of  the  comforts  of  life 
as  another  man  who  also  gives  his  day  and  his  strength 
and  ability  to  his  job,  it  seems  that  something  is  out 
of  order. 

Of  course,  it  is  easy  to  say,  "Well,  let  him  get  more 
skill  and  get  into  a  job  that  pays  more !  Yes,  but  sup- 
pose he  does.  Suppose  everybody  does.  Make  your 
theory  of  advancement  universal,  and  you  have  a  few 
"good  jobs"  crowded  and  a  host  of  necessary  jobs 
empty !  That  kind  of  Success  would  be  suicidal  even 
for  those  who  attained  it,  not  to  mention  the  general 
life  of  society.  There  are  just  two  questions  to  settle 
in  this  relation :  Is  a  man  who  contributes  the  same 
proportion,  time,  strength  and  skill  as  another  entitled 
to  the  same  proportion  of  the  good  and  necessary 
things  of  life?  That  is,  should  the  rule  be,  "From  each 
according  to  his  ability ;  to  each  according  to  his 
need"?    There  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  for  that  view. 

And  the  second  question  is :  Are  those  jobs  which 
do  not  reward  men  with  the  good  and  necessary  things 
of  life,  good  and  necessary  jobs?  Must  we  always 
have  sections  of  human  duty  which  stigmatize  men 
with  a  diminished  reward  ?  Or  is  every  honest  em- 
ployment of  equal  dignity  and  usefulness  in  the  gen- 
eral scheme  of  things  and  therefore  entitled  to  a  dig- 
nified reward?  These  are  questions  which  ought  to 
receive  close  attention.  The  opinion  of  the  sponsor 
of  this  page  is  that  every  job  should  be  a  necessary  and 
useful  job,  and  on  that  ground  should  reward  its 
performer — no  matter  what  its  nature  may  be — with 
the  good  and  necessary  things  of  life. 

That  is  to  say,  it  is  a  great  pity  that  advancement 
has  come  to  mean  advancing  out  of  the  job.  If  all 
the  able  men.  men  able  to  advance,  should  advance 
out  of  their  jobs,  the  useful  production  of  the  world 
would  stop.  Wc  need  miners.  What  a  fallacy  it  is  to 
say  that  when  the  miner  becomes  a  lawyer  he  becomes 
a  "Success."  If  every  miner  capable  of  being  a 
lawyer  should  "advance"  to  that  profession,  what 
would  become  of  mining? 

171 


FORD    IDEALS 


We  must  get  over  the  snobbery  of  thinking  that 
the  men  in  the  professions  are  the  only  men  who 
could  get  there. 

We  must  cease  the  injustice  of  thinking  that  the 
men  who  remain  in  agriculture,  mechanics  and  man- 
ual labor,  remain  there  because  they  haven't  the  ability 
to  get  out  of  them !  We  owe  a  great  debt  of  gratitude 
to  the  men  who  stay  in  these  callings  because  they 
like  them,  because  the  work  satisfies  their  natures. 

It  is  due  to  our  ignorance  that  we  have  been  de- 
luded by  a  false  "Success"  philosophy  into  believing 
that  if  these  men  had  possessed  any  "brains"  they 
would  have  got  out  of  productive  employment  into  un- 
productive work. 

Too  many  people  believe  that  Success  consists  in 
getting  your  bread  and  butter  by  dickering  or  talking 
instead  of  by  producing. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  advancement :  one  inner, 
the  other  outer.  The  inner  advancement  consists  in 
improving  the  quality  of  the  man  himself,  his  char- 
acter, his  experience,  his  skill.  This  ought  to  be  the 
first  concern  of  every  ambitious  young  man.  Instead 
of  being  keenly  on  the  lookout  for  another  job,  he 
should  be  keenly  on  the  task  of  learning  how  to  put 
out  better  work. 

As  to  the  outer  advancement,  it  is  comparatively 
easy  in  this  busy,  restless,  changing  country  of  ours 
to  get  a  chance  at  a  better  job.    The  test  is  in  filling  it. 

It  is  a  pitiable  mistake  to  think  that  all  you  have 
to  do  is  to  get  the  title,  get  the  office,  get  the  authority, 
and  you  are  made.  No.  Attaining  this  outer  court 
of  Success  is  merely  approaching  the  examination 
rooms  where  so  many  are  found  wanting  and  are 
turned  back. 

It  is  no  trick  at  all  to  get  a  chance  at  a  more  re- 
sponsible job  than  you  have  now ;  the  trick  will  come 
in  holding  it.  And  then  the  advantage  of  interior  ad- 
vancement will  become  apparent.  You  know,  the 
directors  of  great  enterprises  are  not  simply  in  search 
of  good-looking  young  men  who  can  adorn  a  title  and 
imitate  the  air  of  business  men.  A  title  is  never  a 
bit    bigger    than    the    man    who    holds    it — and    some 


FALSE      SUCCESS    I'HILOSOPHY 


mighty  big  titles  shrink  to  mighty  Httle  proportions 
through  the  lack  of  ability  of  those  who  hold  them. 

What  a  young  man  wants  is  a  sure  investment — 
and  merely  getting  a  chance  at  another  job  is  just  a 
chance,  that's  all. 

But  when  advancement  begins  within  the  man  him- 
self;  when  he  advances  from  half  interest  to  strength 
of  purpose;  when  he  advances  from  hesitancy  of 
decision  to  decisive  directness ;  when  he  advances 
from  immaturity  to  maturity  of  judgment;  when  he 
advances  from  apprenticeship  to  mastery  in  the  line 
of  work  he  has  chosen ;  when  he  advances  from  a 
mere  dilettante  at  labor  to  a  worker  who  finds  a  gen- 
uine joy  in  work ;  when  he  advances  from  an  eye- 
server  to  one  who  can  be  entrusted  to  do  his  work 
without  oversight  and  without  prodding — why,  there 
is  no  use  making  any  question  about  that  man's  ad- 
vancement;  he  is  advancing;  he  is  advancing  himself 
and  his  work,  and  that  is  all  there  is  to  it.  He  is 
making  himself  irresistibly  worth  while  advancing. 
And  the  consequence  is  that  the  boss  who  does  not 
advance  him  outwardly  to  the  limit  of  his  inward  ad- 
vancement is  a  fool  who  has  no  conception  of  his  own 
interest. 

After  all,  about  the  only  doctrine  of  the  old  "Suc- 
cess" philosophy  that  is  true  forever  is  that,  in  all 
essential  things,  a  man's  destiny  is  within  his  own 
control.  His  outer  world  corresponds  pretty  accu- 
rately to  his  inner  world. 


Competition  and  Go-operation 


THERE  was  a  time  when  we  heard  a  great  deal 
about  the  comparative  merits  of  competition  and 
co-operation,  but  somehow  the  interest  has  seemed 
to  die  away  from  such  discussions  during  the  last  few 
years ;  we  have  had  something  definite  to  do,  some- 
thing which  we  all  had  to  unite  to  do,  and  in  the 
practical  requirements  of  the  times  we  forgot  mere 
academic  talk. 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  to  say  a  great  deal  in 
favor  of  competition  as  a  principle ;  possible  also  to 
say  a  good  deal  in  condemnation  of  it  as  we  see  it  in 
practice. 

We  may  mean  one  thing  when  we  use  the  term 
"competition,"  and  then  be  vastly  surprised  to  see 
that  the  thing  which  really  passes  for  competition  in 
the  world  is  not  what  we  meant  at  all. 

Ordinarily,  the  competition  which  we  have  in 
mind  during  our  discussions  is  a  much  higher  grade 
activity  than  the  actual  competition  of  the  work-a-day 
business  world. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  the  competition 
of  our  philosophical  moods,  and  the  unprincipled 
throat-cutting  and  jabbing  which  actually  goes  on. 

Our  generation  has  lived  to  see  the  most  com- 
petitive lines  of  business  become  closely  organized 
trusts,  simply  because  competition — ruthless  and  con- 
scienceless competition — became  the  death  of  com- 
petition. The  most  powerful  and  relentless  competitor 
simply  killed  competition  altogether.  He  did  it  by 
destroying  the  power  of  his  competitor  to  compete. 

It  is  when  competition  is  destroyed  through  that 
fashion  that  we  begin  to  realize  how  beneficial  it  has 
been.  We  frequently  make  laws  by  means  of  which 
we  try  to  bring  back  the  old-time  competitive  condi- 
tions. And  directly  we  get  them  back  into  practice, 
we  begin  to  see  that  even  they  were  not  altogether 
desirable. 

174 


COMPETITION     AND    CO-OPERATION 

We  know  enough  now  to  say  that  the  competition 
which  ends  in  the  powerlessness  of  the  majority  of 
competitors  and  in  the  kingship  of  one,  is  not  the  kind 
of  competition  that  anyone  with  insight  or  foresight 
could  commend  as  the  rule  for  society  as  a  whole. 

That  is  to  say,  the  kind  of  competition  which, 
raised  to  its  highest  power,  results  in  the  defeat  of  the 
many  and  the  overlordship  of  a  ruthless  few,  is  there- 
by proved  to  be  fallacious.  For  when  you  get  a  prin- 
ciple which  cannot  be  universally  applied  without  do- 
ing infinite  damage,  you  simply  do  not  have  a  uni- 
versal principle,  that's  all.  This  destructive  kind  of 
competition  is  not  capable  of  universal  application. 

If  you  will  examine  the  kind  of  competition  which 
merits  this  description,  you  will  find  that  it  lacks  many 
of  the  qualities  which  must  be  found  in  that  generous 
form  of  rivalry  out  of   which  progress  comes. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  personal.  It  hinges  on  the 
aggrandizement  of  some  individual  or  group.  It  is  a 
sort  of  warfare.  It  is  inspired  by  a  desire  to  "get" 
someone,  which  is  what  "getting  the  better  of  him" 
usually  means. 

It  is  wholly  selfish.  That  is  to  say,  its  motive  is 
not  pride  in  the  product,  nor  a  desire  to  excel  in 
service,  nor  yet  a  wholesome  ambition  to  approach  to 
scientific  methods  of  production,  but  simply  a  desire 
to  crowd  out  all  others  and  monopolize  the  market 
for  the  sake  of  the  money  returns,  and  substitute  a 
product  of   inferior  quality. 

That  is  the  competition  which  has  strewn  the  path 
of  life  with  ruined  hopes,  broken  hearts  and  stained 
names — the  competition  which  burned  with  fierce  fires 
of  lust  for  power  and  gain  and  prestige. 

It  always  ends  in  tragedy — the  tragedy  of  winning 
under  such  conditions,  and  the  tragedy  of  losing.  No 
success  can  be  called  a  true  success  which  is  bought 
at  the  cost  of  another's  undeserved  pain.  It  is  open 
to  the  man  who  strives  after  success  to  make  himself 
sweat  and  suffer  as  much  as  he  dares  in  order  to  reach 
his  honest  goal,  but  to  get  there  at  the  cost  of  other 
men's  chances  in  life  is  far  too  large  a  price  to  pay. 
And  it  is  a  price  which  will  one  day  be  exacted  of 
him  who  compels  it. 


FORD    IDEALS 

That  is  the  test : — extend  your  form  of  competi- 
tion out  to  its  last  success,  and  what  does  it  do?  Does 
it  draw  hosts  of  men  to  you  in  glad  co-operation?  Or 
does  it  drive  hosts  of  men  into  the  darkness  as  de- 
spairing wrecks? 

It  will  do  no  harm  for  the  ambitious  young  man 
to  measure  his  plans  by  this  test.  Young  men  ought 
to  be  planning,  not  according  to  the  lower  sort  of  rules 
which  exist  on  certain  planes  of  business  today,  but 
according  to  the  higher  rules  which  are  bound  to  be- 
come operative  when  Business  becomes  Service  and 
not  mere  selfish  rivalry. 

To  compete  for  money  or  markets,  for  themselves 
alone,  and  not  with  reference  to  a  superiority  of 
product  or  service,  is  to  take  the  downward  track  in 
business. 

Now,  there  is  a  form  of  competition,  which  is 
really  deserving  of  a  better  word  to  describe  it,  and 
which  is  an  honest  rivalry  to  improve  conditions  gen- 
erally by  improving  the  articles  of  commerce  and  the 
conditions  under  which  they  are  produced  and 
marketed. 

When  a  man  succeeds  in  this,  he  discovers  that  he 
has  not  played  a  shut-out  game  at  all.  He  discovers 
that  he  has  not  ruined  anyone  in  the  process.  He 
can  go  to  sleep  at  night  without  a  troubling  conscience. 

For  his  success  has  not  spelled  defeat  for  any- 
body ;  it  has  spelled  opportunity  for  everybody  around 
him.  And  instead  of  exalting  him  at  the  expense  of 
other  men's  lives,  it  simply  opens  the  door  for  the 
widest  co-operation  between  himself  and  his  fellow- 
men. 

He  has  not  worked  for  personal  glory.  He  has  not 
worked  for  mere  riches.  He  has  worked  to  achieve 
the  highest  quality  of  product  and  service,  and  in  his 
cup  of  success  there  are  no  bitter  dregs  at  all — at 
least  none  of  those  dregs  which  come  of  taking  unfair 
advantage  or  causing  the  ruin  of  other  men. 

So  there  you  have  two  forms  of  competition  and 
their  ends.  One  ends  in  a  monopoly  of  the  most 
autocratic  and  dangerous  sort — all  our  great  trusts 
were  built  by  means  of  the  financial  bludgeon.    The 

176 


COMPETITION     AND    CO-OPERATION 

Other  ends  in  greatly  increased  opportunity  and  won- 
derfully extended  forms  of  practical  co-operation. 

The  trend  of  everything  which  is  lasting  and  good 
in  the  economic  world  is  toward  the  co-operative  prin- 
ciple, not  necessarily  along  the  express  lines  advo- 
cated by  certain  theoretical  sociologists,  but  in  har- 
mony with  the  principle  that  we  are  all  fellow-work- 
men on  the  same  essential  task. 

If  cut-throat,  personal,  selfish  competition  were 
the  natural  and  practical  method  of  working,  why  is  it 
that  it  cannot  be  applied  zvifhin  the  group,  instead  of 
only  between  great  groups? 

That  is,  why  is  it  that  the  workman  within  the 
shop  is  not  encouraged  to  compete  against  the  shop, 
to  beat  the  interest  of  the  industry  in  which  he  is  en- 
gaged, to  count  his  organization  his  enemy?  That 
would  be  competition  brought  right  down  to  the  in- 
dividual  workman — why  isn't   it   done? 

Because  such  competition  would  ruin  all  produc- 
tion in  a  very  short  time.  Competition  made  uni- 
versal would  be  universally  destructive.  It  would 
be  like  the  soldiers  of  two  armies  turning  each  man 
on  his  comrade — it  would  be  fighting,  but  it  would 
get  nowhere. 

No.  In  order  for  the  destructive  competition  of 
the  larger  groups  of  interest  to  continue,  the  men 
within  each  group  must  be  co-operative ;  they  must 
give  up  competition  among  themselves  and  work  for 
the  good  of  the  whole. 

Well,  then,  if  this  wide  substratum  of  co-opera- 
tion is  necessary  to  the  competition  of  the  higher 
financial  and  speculative  groups ;  and  if  the  com- 
petition of  the  higher  groups,  when  introduced  to  all 
the  industrial  groups  that  make  production  possible, 
would  simply  destroy  all  productive  processes,  it  must 
be  perfectly  clear  that  the  basis  of  our  progress  is 
co-operation  and  not  combative  competition  at  all. 

The  princi])le  that  you  cannot  apply  all  round  is 
a  i)retty  doubtful  one  to  follow  at  any  time. 

The  cause  of  the  curse  of  compelition,  whether  we 
view  it  as  the  strife  of  powerful  financial  groups 
which  are  gambling  in  the  products  of  honest  labor, 
or  as  the  strife  of  the  obscure   iiulividual   to  benefit 


FORD    IDEALS 

himself  at  the  expense  of  the  man  who  works  next 
to  him,  is  our  false  standard  of  reward.  We  have 
made  that  standard  to  be  Money  or  Recognition. 

Rich  man  and  working  man  both  compete  in  the 
same  hurtful  spirit  when  they  are  under  this  wrong 
view  of  matters.  We  want  to  catch  somebody's  eye 
or  the  world's  eye.  We  want  first  of  all  the  money 
which  this  brings,  when,  if  men  only  knew  it,  the 
quickest  way  to  both  recognition  and  reward  is  just 
the  way  of  service  and  no  other. 

If  the  world  saw  among  all  classes  more  com- 
petition for  excellence,  many  of  the  evils  of  the  time 
would  disappear. 

For  the  conditions  from  which  we  suffer  and  of 
which  we  complain  are  not  the  fault  of  the  Creator, 
nor  of  the  earth,  nor  of  nature,  nor  of  the  round  of 
the  seasons ;  they  are  just  the  result  of  twists  in  hu- 
man nature  which  has  not  yet  learned  the  art  of  liv- 
ing, of  so  handling  and  distributing  and  using  the 
wealth  of  the  earth  as  that  all  shall  be  supplied. 

Modern  competition  is  more  like  the  mad  scramble 
to  get  out  of  a  theater  at  the  cry  of  "Fire !"  than  like 
anything  else  one  can  think  of.  If  we  would  all  be 
ready  to  do  the  best  thing  for  every  one  as  a  whole, 
we  should  all  come  through  safely  and  with  rightfully 
earned  wealth.  We  need  to  do  the  universal  thing, 
and  keep  doing  it.  And  the  greatest  and  most  inex- 
haustible of  all  the  universals  is — Excellence !  He 
who  strives  to  excel  never  fails,  and  in  his  success  he 
never  hurts  a  single  soul. 


178 


Land  Is  the  Basic  Fact 

IF  LAND  is  the  bottom  economic  fact,  it  is  not  be- 
cause land  gives  us  a  place  to  stand  in  the  sun, 
but  because  it  is  the  source  of  our  physical  sustenance. 
It  is  not  room  that  is  valuable,  but  productive  power. 
Having  room  upon  the  earth  is  the  privilege  of  every 
homeless  wanderer,  but  having  food  is  another  matter. 
No  human  skill  can  produce  food.  It  is  the  func- 
tion of  utilizing  the  natural  forces  to  do  that.  And 
as  these  forces  do  not  function  apart  from  the  earth 
itself,  land  becomes  the  fundamental  of  property,  and 
food  the  fundamental  of  wealth. 

It  is  one  of  the  significant  facts  of  human  history, 
though  one  never  sees  it  referred  to,  that  the  earth 
has  always  proved  equal  to  its  task  of  providing  the 
ei^tire  living  creation  with  the  faculties  to  obtain  its 
food. 

There  has  never  been  such  a  calamity  as  a  world- 
wide famine.  Local  famines  have  sometimes  occurred, 
and  in  the  days  before  commerce  and  transportation 
such  local  famines  had  all  the  awfulness  of  a  uni- 
versal famine.  But  it  has  always  been  the  case  that 
if  one  section  failed  from  natural  or  other  causes, 
other  sections  were  plentifully  able  to  fill  up  the  lack. 

The  fertility  of  the  earth  is  such  that  certain  sec- 
tions of  it  could  feed  the  whole  if  necessary. 

A  genuinely  universal  scarcity  of  food  has  never 
afflicted  the  earth.     Nature  has  never  failed. 

But  we  appear  to  be  entering  an  era  when  human 
manipulation  is  seeking  to  produce  the  same  results 
which,  were  they  produced  by  Nature,  would  be 
deemed  the  height  of   human  misfortune. 

It  is  an  astonishing  fact,  this.  Simj)le-minded 
people  would  think  that  men  would  not  dare  to  pro- 
duce artificially  the  phenomena  of  widespread  famine, 
and  do  it  for  gain.  There  is  something  terribly  de- 
fiant of  all  retributive  forces  in  ihe  universe,  in  such 
a  course. 

We  are  ntnv  learning  that  so  abundant  is  the  yield 


FORD    IDEALS 

of  Earth  that  even  during  the  great  war,  when  it 
seemed  that  four-fifths  of  the  world  had  been  drawn 
into  the  work  of  destruction,  there  was  still  enough 
food  for  all  and  to  spare. 

True,  we  felt  a  scarcity  at  times,  but  it  was  not  a 
scarcity  due  to  insufficient  production ;  it  was  a  scarcity 
due  to  emergency  diversion. 

Great  quantities  of  food  were  diverted,  not  because 
there  was  much  actual  lack,  but  to  reassure  those  who 
feared  a  future  lack  and  whose  morale  was  being 
broken  by  that  fear. 

This  diversion  began  at  the  home.  The  American 
wife  and  daughter  began  to  save  here  and  there,  and 
the  aggregate  was  enormous. 

As  long  as  we  were  "doing  without"  of  our  own 
free  will,  as  long  as  we  knew  that  our  deprivation 
was  not  caused  by  the  greedy  injustice  of  others,  but 
by  a  humane  program  for  helping  the  world,  we  did 
without  gladly.  The  American  housewife  joked  over 
her  makeshifts  and  substitutes.  They  were  not  forc^ed 
upon  her  by  profiteers,  but  by  dictates  of  humanity. 

It  makes  a  very  great  difference  why  you  do  a 
thing.  If  you  fast  for  three  days  on  account  of  your 
health,  doing  it  willingly,  it  is  a  very  interesting  ex- 
perience and  costs  you  very  little  suffering.  You  are 
really  eager  throughout  the  time,  interested  in  the 
experiment. 

But  let  a  man  miss  one  or  two  meals  because  of 
his  poverty,  and  the  deprivation  is  very,  very  bitter. 
It  isn't  only  the  loss  of  the  food,  but  the  loss  of  the 
sense  of  self-support,  and  this  pulls  him  down  far 
more  quickly  than  mere  physical  fasting  could  do. 

Yes,  it  makes  a  great  difference,  wJiy  we  do  a  thing. 

It  turns  out  upon  investigation  that  mvich  of  the 
food  we  saved  during  the  war  period  has  accumulated 
into  very  large  surplusage  of  war  and  other  stores ; 
so  much  so,  indeed,  that  a  fear  has  been  expressed 
that  the  loosing  upon  the  general  market  of  these 
quantities  of  foodstuffs  would  result  in  a  calamitous 
reduction  of  food  prices. 

This  very  fear  is  evidence  enough  of  the  huge 
stores  of  accumulated  food. 

But  the  fear  is  evidence  of  something  else. 


LAND    IS    THE    BASIC    FACT 

There  was  a  time  when  the  whole  food  situation 
was  regarded  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  con- 
sumer. Men  grew  rich  out  of  many  things,  but  not 
out  of  food.  The  farmer  did  not  grow  rich,  nor  did 
the  miller,  nor  did  the  baker.  Food  was  free  of  the 
shackles  of  greed. 

But  insensibly  all  that  has  changed.  Within  our 
own  generation  we  have  seen  the  beginnings  of  the 
financial  exploitation  of  the  food  of  the  people. 

It  began  in  wheat  "corners"  and  "pools,"  which 
used  to  be  so  public  and  spectacular  that  the  news- 
papers gave  all  details.  So  full  and  free  was  the  in- 
formation concerning  these  market  coups  that  the 
people  protested  against  gambling  in  their  very  bread. 

Well,  the  protest  only  had  the  effect  of  stopping 
the  individual  daring  of  exploiters  and  the  publica- 
tion of  their  acts.  Nowadays  the  same  thing  is  ac- 
complished, but  far  more  disastrously  to  the  country, 
and  no  one  hears  anything  about  it.  All  the  food  is 
cornered  all  the  year  round  by  all  the  exploiting  in- 
terests, so  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  poorest  man 
to  point  to  an  edible  on  his  table  that  is  not  taxed  to 
the  limit  by  a  gigantic  trust. 

Sometimes  our  attention  is  riveted  to  this  or  that 
commodity,  such  as  wheat  or  meat ;  but  it  doesn't 
matter  as  to  details;  the  fact  is  the  whole  Food  Sup- 
ply of  the  people  has  been  placed  under  an  exploiter's 
tax. 

When  you  find  that  meat  is  too  expensive  because 
it  has  increased  100  per  cent  in  two  years,  you  take 
to  some  perfectly  adequate  substitute  like  rice. 

And  when  you  look  into  the  channels  through 
which  the  rice  comes  to  you,  you  find  it  under  the 
control  of  the  same  forces  that  made  meat  impos- 
sible to  you.  You  find,  moreover,  that  due  to  these 
"modern  methods  of  merchandising,"  of  which  so 
nuich  untruth  is  told,  your  rice  costs  you  75  ])er  cent 
more  than  it  did  a  year  ago. 

It  is  certainl}-  a  great  game  that  drives  people  to 
substitutes,  and  then  corners  the  substitutes.  The 
same  forces  that  made  butter  impossible  in  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  homes,  has  control  of  the  oleomar- 
garine supply. 

181 


FORD    IDEALS 


Now,  if  there  were  not  enough  food,  human  na- 
ture would  accept  the  fact  with  a  certain  degree  of 
equanimity. 

But  there  is  enough.  There  is  more  than  enough 
right  now.  And  there  is  very  much  more  than  enough 
in  sight. 

But  there's  the  "market" — ah,  the  delicate,  high- 
strung,  sensitive  market ! — that  must  be  protected. 
And,  pray,  what  is  the  "market"  ?  Why,  it  is  the  ex- 
ploiters !     Just  the  food  gamblers ! 

It  is  amazing  how  much  nearer  the  truth  we  get 
when  we  strip  away  the  verbiage  and  state  matters  as 
they  are. 

If  you  want  to  see  how  far  we  have  come  from 
considering  the  people  as  having  the  first  interest  in 
the  food  supply,  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  observe  the 
fear  which  is  felt  everywhere  about  giving  the  people 
a  chance  at  the  surplus  food  stocks.  It  would  hurt 
the  "market" ! 

Maybe  it  would;  but  would  it  help  the  people? 
That  is  a  side  of  the  matter  which  the  exploiters  never 
consider. 

The  Food  Question  is  the  chief  public  economic 
question.  It  doesn't  much  matter  if  our  ballot  is  free, 
if  our  bread  is  at  the  mercy  of  profiteers. 

We  can  chant  about  Liberty  and  Equality  all  we 
please,  but  it  will  not  mean  much  if  an  invisible  gov- 
ernment of  food  gamblers  is  able  to  levy  extortionate 
tribute  on  our  dinner  tables. 

Fortunately  this  matter  has  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress ;  unfortunately  the  whole  emphasis 
has  been  on  the  food  "business." 

The  only  Food  Business  that  can  ever  justify  itself 
to  the  human  race  is  the  Business  that  raises  Food 
in  sufficient  quantity  and  distributes  it  under  such 
conditions  as  will  enable  every  family  to  have  enough 
of  all  that  it  needs. 

It  may  be  that  one  way  we  shall  take  to  break  the 
food  trust  will  be  to  raise  such  overwhelming  quan- 
tities of  all  kinds  of  food  as  shall  make  manipulation 
and  exploitation  impossible.  We  shall  probably  do 
that  by  means  of  the  new  modes  of  power-farming 

1-82 


LAND   IS   THE  BASIC  FACT 

which  are  coming  into  vogue  with  such  rapidity  in  all 
parts  of  the  United  States,  and  elsewhere  in  the  world. 

And  then,  perhaps,  we  shall  witness  a  revival  of 
the  small  flour-milling  business  in  our  communities. 
It  was  an  evil  day  when  the  village  flour  mill  disap- 
peared. Co-operative  farming  will  yet  become  so  de- 
veloped and  perfected  that  we  shall  see  associations  of 
farmers  with  their  own  packing  houses  in  which  their 
own  hogs  will  be  turned  into  ham  and  bacon,  with 
their  own  flour  mills  in  which  their  grain  will  be 
turned  into  commercial  foodstuflfs. 

Why  a  steer  raised  in  Texas  should  be  brought  to 
Chicago  and  then  served  in  Boston  is  a  question  that 
cannot  be  answered  on  good  business  principles  so 
long  as  there  could  be  raised  near  Boston  all  the  steers 
that  city  needs.  This  centralization  of  food  manu- 
facturing industries,  entailing  as  it  does  enormous 
costs  for  transportation  and  organization,  is  one  very 
serious  cause  of  the  era  of  prohibitive  prices  in  which 
we  find  ourselves. 


183 


Ideals  Versus  Ideas 


AMERICANS  are  the  most  idealistic  people  in  the 
world,  yet  of  all  human  beings  they  are  the  most 
impatient  of  being  called  idealists  because  they  fancy 
that  somehow  the  name  involves  frills  and  fads  with 
which  practical  people  have  nothing  to  do.  They 
fancy  that  idealism  is  emotion  and  sentiment.  They 
are  under  the  impression  that  it  is  feminine. 

Well,  the  rose  by  any  other  name  would  smell 
just  as  sweet,  and  idealism  may  exist  without  the 
name.  We  may  as  well  call  it  progressiveness,  or 
wide-awakeness,  or  foresight.  Idealism  does  not  nec- 
essarily involve  emotion  or  sentimentality.  It  takes 
its  color,  of  course,  from  the  temper  and  experience 
of  the  person  who  possesses  it,  but  so  do  politics,  re- 
ligion and  business. 

To  be  an  idealist  is  simply  to  be  able  to  see  what 
does  not  yet  exist  in  the  minds  of  others. 

Things  have  two  existences,  an  ideal  existence  and 
an  objective  existence.  Or,  to  say  it  more  simply, 
things  are  ideas  before  they  are  things ;  the  idea  is 
before  the  thing  itself,  and  the  thing  itself  cannot  exist 
apart  from  its  idea. 

The  busy  world  around  us  existed  in  ideal  before 
it  existed  in  material. 

Someone  thought  of  everything  you  see,  before  it 
really  appeared. 

There  never  was  a  rubber  eraser  on  the  end  of  a 
lead  pencil,  until  someone  saw  with  the  eye  of  his 
mind  a  rubber-tipped  pencil.  After  seeing  it  in  the 
ideal  world,  he  proceeded  to  make  a  copy  in  the  so- 
called   "real"  world. 

And  that  is  the  history  of  everything  with  which 
mankind  has  had  to  do. 

If  you  go  back  still  further,  it  may  be  that  this  is 
also  the  history  of  the  world  and  the  stars ;  the  cre- 
ative power  first  saw  them  as  ideas,  and  then  realized 
them  in  matter. 

184 


IDEALS    VERSUS    IDEAS 

Every  inventor  is  an  idealist,  because  he  is  work- 
ing on  something  that  has  not  yet  appeared. 

Every  prophet  is  an  ideaHst,  because  he  is  Hving 
in  a  world  or  in  a  social  condition  which  has  not  yet 
come  into  existence. 

And,  in  a  way,  every  one  who  looks  backward  and 
lives  in  memory,  every  aged  person  who  lives  in  a 
world  of  people  long  since  vanished  and  amid  ac- 
tivities long  since  ceased,  is  an  idealist.  That  is,  the 
idea  occupies  a  larger  place  than  the  "real." 

Except  for  idealists,  there  would  have  been  no 
United  States  of  America.  Our  government  and  in- 
stitutions and  liberties  were  spun  out  of  the  invisible 
essence  of  men's  minds  just  as  literally  as  the  spider 
spins  its  web  out  of  the  substances  of  its  body.  The 
Fathers  of  the  Republic  had  no  pattern  to  go  by,  save 
the  pattern  of  the  ideal  government  which  existed 
in  their  minds.  They  transferred  that  pattern  out  of 
their  ideals  and  put  it  into  constitutions  and  laws;  the 
people  began  to  mould  their  lives  in  accordance  with 
these ;  and,  lo !  the  new  political  entity  was  born. 

Take  the  League  of  Nations ;  it  is  nothing  but 
an  ideal.  It  does  not  function  yet.  It  only  lives  in 
men's  minds  and  ideas.  Yet  how  real  it  is !  By  watch- 
ing the  growth  of  that  absolutely  new  appearance  on 
earth,  we  can  observe  the  method  by  which  things 
that  never  existed  before  are  born  out  of  the  world 
of  ideality  into  the  world  of   reality. 

Therefore  an  idealist  is  nothing  strange. 

The  human  mind  is  a  channel  through  which 
things-to-be  are  coming  into  the  realm  of  things-that- 
arc.  Were  it  not  for  ideas  and  idealists,  the  race 
would  still  be  wandering  around  in  the  eastern  deserts. 

But  there  is  a  difference  in  idealists,  and  perhaps 
this  gives  us  a  clue  as  to  the  disfavor  with  which 
some  of  them  are  regarded. 

There  is,  for  example,  the  idealist  who  has  no  ideas. 
There  are  many  such. 

The  ditiFcrcnce  between  ideals  and  ideas  may  be 
hard  to  define  in  theory,  but  it  is  clear  in  practice. 

An  idea  is  a  gangplank  thrown  across  the  gap 
between  the  ideal  and  the  real. 

The   air    is    full    of    many   inagnilicciit    ideals    that 

185 


FORD    IDEALS 

cannot  step  ashore  into  the  real  world  because  there 
are  no  ideas  for  them  to  walk  upon. 

If  you  have  an  ideal,  that  is  good.  If  you  have  an 
ideal,  and  also  ideas  as  to  how  to  work  it  out,  that 
is  better. 

Idealists  without  ideas  are  often  made  the  butt  of 
jokes.  That  is  wrong.  The  very  existence  of  the 
ideals,  even  in  a  hazy  form,  shows  the  pressure  that 
is  being  exerted  from  the  invisible  side  of  life  for  the 
bringing  of  better  ways.  Every  ideal,  particularly 
every  moral  and  social  ideal,  indicates  the  pressure  of 
better  conditions  which  are  trying  to  break  through 
and  become  the  rule  of  our  life.  But  they  cannot 
break  through  until  roads  are  built  for  them,  and 
these  roads  are  the  ideas  which  will  work  them  out 
into  practical  use. 

As  far  as  actual  life-pressure  is  concerned,  the 
idealist  who  has  vision  without  ideas  is  living  on  a 
far  higher  plane  than  the  practical  man  whose  ideas 
were  never  enlightened  by  a  single  ideal.  The  mind 
of  the  idealist  at  least  has  wings.  And  then,  again, 
there  is  the  idealist  whose  vision  is  so  distant  from 
what  we  have  or  can  have  now,  that  he  is  derided  as 
a  deluded  dreamer.  Still,  he  may  not  be.  Some 
minds  have  longer  sight  than  others,  and  it  behooves 
the  short-sighted  mind  to  be  modest  in  the  presence 
of  the  other. 

The  vision  may  seem  the  height  of  foolish  im- 
possibility today;  half  a  century  hence  it  may  be  the 
commonplace  of  every  day. 

There  are  idealists  who  see  the  things  which  will 
appear  next  year  or  ten  years  hence.  They  are  the 
more  practical  kind,  because  their  ideals  are  accom- 
panied with  workable  ideas.  And  then  there  are 
idealists  who  see  further  than  the  best  of  us  can  sense ; 
but  this  is  no  reason  for  declaring  that  they  do  not 
see  truly. 

The  American  is  a  practical  idealist.  That  is,  he 
is  gifted  with  ideals  which  can  be  readily  realized. 
He  respects  ideals  that  can  be  immediately  brought 
down  to  reality. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  progress  of  our 
idealists  is  not  evenly  balanced. 

186 


IDEALS  VERSUS   IDEAS 

We  easily  conceive  new  and  better  methods  in 
mechanics  and  business ;  we  teem  with  a  practical 
idealism  which  can  be  harnessed  to  the  interests  of 
the  workaday  world ;  and  yet  it  must  be  said  that  we 
are  not  so  successful  when  the  ideal  happens  to  be 
social  or  political. 

That  is  to  say,  our  social  and  political  progress  has 
not  equalled  our  mechanical  and  commercial  progress. 

Why?  Is  it  because  we  have  fewer  social  and 
political  ideals  ?  Or  is  it  because  we  are  not  so  capable 
of  translating  social  ideals  into  practical  ideas,  and 
political  ideals  into  practical  political  ideas? 

Is  it  the  American  genius  to  work  in  iron  and 
steel,  and  not  in  the  substances  which  determine  the 
social  structure? 

We  would  be  loath  to  admit  this.  And  yet  the 
facts  stare  us  in  the  face. 

Let  us  not  be  like  England.  For  centuries,  she  has 
been  mistress  of  the  seas.  She  has  organized  and 
ruled  an  empire  so  vast  that  the  sun  never  sets  upon 
her  domain.  She  has  reaped  the  harvest  of  com- 
merce from  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  She  has  in- 
fluenced the  literature  of  the  world.  She  has  given 
many  of  the  pattern  laws  of  the  world's  liberty. 

You  would  think  that  a  country  which  could  so 
organize  the  greater  part  of  the  world  would  have  the 
most  perfect  home  social  conditions  to  show  for  it. 

Yet,  England's  social  fabric  threatens  to  fall  to 
pieces.  Few  countries  are  as  upset  as  she  is  today. 
Few  populations  have  such  a  list  of  injustices  and 
oppressions  to  show. 

Thus  it  becomes  clear  that  a  nation  may  be  very 
capable  in  many  ways  and  yet  neglect  the  greatest  of 
tasks,  the  making  of  a  happy,  prosperous  life  for  her 
own  people. 

What  will  the  United  States  gain  even  if  she  wins 
the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  cannot  create  just 
social  conditions  at  home? 

What  glory  is  it  to  any  nation  that  one  class  rises 
in  wealth  and  power,  while  all  the  other  classes  are 
made  to  feel  an  increasing  burden  of  costs  and  im- 
certainty  ? 

There   is   plenty   of   social    idealism   in   the    world. 

187 


FORD    IDEALS 


Indeed,  sometimes  it  would  appear  that  that  is  the 
only  kind  of  idealism  which  exists. 

Yet  there  is  a  great  dearth  of  practical  ideas  of 
social  betterment.  There  are  hosts  of  theories.  In 
some  parts  of  the  earth  those  theories  are  being  tried 
by  earnest  believers  in  them,  yet  they  are  not  proving 
successful. 

The  need  of  the  time  is  a  social  idealism  which 
will  also  provide  ideas  by  which  the  ideals  may  be 
worked  out ;  not  only  hazy  desires  for  a  better  world, 
but  practical  plans  for  the  building  of  a  better  world 
out  of  the  one  we  now  have.  The  world  we  now  live 
in  is  the  world  we  must  transform ;  we  cannot  destroy 
it ;  we  must  live  with  it  until  we  leave  it  better ;  and 
practical  ideals  are  our  only  hope  of  making  it  better. 


What  Is  Education — Cargo 
or  Motive  Power? 


SOME  people  are  proud  of  their  good  looks.  Others 
are  proud  of  their  social  standing.  Still  others 
are  proud  of  their  wealth.  Most  people  are  proud  of 
their  ancestry,  because  it  was  good  and  honest.  But 
it  would  be  very  easy  to  find  a  large  class  of  people 
who  are  proud  of  what  they  know,  proud  of  the  knowl- 
edge that  they  have  gathered ;  and  they  would  not  be 
confined  to  the  so-called  educated  classes  either. 

Knowledge  is  such  a  vague  term  that  it  is  well  to 
understand  just  what  may  be  meant  by  it. 

The  fact  that  certain  fluids  will  take  stains  out  of 
a  tablecloth,  is  knowledge.  If  the  housewife  knows 
that,  it  may  come  handy  to  her.  But  you  may  search 
through  thousands  of  books  in  the  big  library  and 
never  find  that  special  part  of  knowledge  mentioned. 

The  farmer's  boy  knows  at  which  pool  the  trout 
is  to  be  found,  and  that  is  knowledge,  but  it  would 
never  win  him  ])raise  from  a  college. 

The  weather-beaten  land-looker  can  tell  by  a  glance 
at  the  sky  what  the  weather  will  be.  but  he  could  not 
qualify  among  the  scientists  who  are  wise  in  these 
things. 

There  are  many  kinds  of  knowledge,  and  it  de- 
pends on  what  crowd  you  happen  to  be  in.  or  how  the 
fashions  of  the  day  happen  to  run.  which  kind  of 
knowledge  is  most  respected  at  the  moment.  There 
are  fashions  in  knowledge,  just  as  there  are  in  every- 
thing else. 

When  some  of  us  were  lads,  knowledge  used  to  be 
limited  to  Bible  knowledge.  There  were  certain  men 
in  the  neighborhood  who  knew  the  Book  thoroughly, 
and  they  were  looked  up  to  and  respected  for  it. 
Biblical  knowledge  was  highly  valued  then. 

Bui  nowadays  it  is  doubtful  whether  deep  ac- 
(juaintancc  with  the  Bible  would  be  sufficient  to  win 


FORD    IDEALS 


a  man  a  name  for  learning.  Although  it  must  be 
said  that  knowledge  of  that  Book  would  indicate  a 
well-stored  mind,  it  would  not  win  much  respect 
among  the  wiseacres  of  the  day,  because  fashions  in 
knowledge  have  changed. 

Knowledge  is  something  that  somebody  once  knew 
and  left  in  a  form  which  enabled  anyone  else,  who 
wanted  to,  to  know  it. 

If  a  man  is  born  with  normal  human  faculties,  if 
he  is  equipped  with  enough  ability  to  use  the  tools 
which  we  call  "letters"  in  reading  or  writing,  there 
is  no  knowledge  within  the  possession  of  the  race  that 
he  cannot  have — if  he  wants  it ! 

The  only  reason  every  man  does  not  know  every- 
thing that  the  human  mind  has  ever  learned  is  that  no 
one  has  ever  yet  found  it  worth  while  to  know  that 
much. 

Men  satisfy  their  minds  more  by  finding  out  things 
for  themselves,  than  by  heaping  together  the  things 
which   somebody  else  has   found   out. 

You  can  go  out  and  gather  knowledge  all  your  life, 
and  with  all  your  gathering  you  will  not  catch  up 
even  with  your  own  times. 

You  may  fill  your  head  with  all  the  "facts"  of  all 
the  ages,  and  your  head  may  be  just  an  overloaded 
fact-box  when  you  get  through. 

The  point  is  this :  Great  piles  of  knowledge  in  the 
head  are  not  the  same  as  mental  activity.  A  man 
may  be  very  learned  and  very  useless.  Any  college 
professor  will  tell  you  that.  And  then  again,  a  man 
may  be  unlearned  and  very  useful,  very  wide-awake 
in  his  mind — and  any  professor  of  psychology  will 
tell  you  that,  too. 

The  object  of  education  is  not  to  fill  a  man's  mind 
with  facts ;  it  is  to  teach  him  how  to  use  his  mind 
in  thinking. 

And  it  often  happens  that  a  man  can  think  better 
if  he  is  not  hampered  by  the  knowledge  of  the  past. 

If  Columbus  had  paid  attention  to  "facts,"  if  he 
had  held  them  in  reverence,  if  he  had  believed  that 
all  knowledge  was  in  the  books  and  there  was  none 
to  be  had  outside  the  books,  he  would  never  have  set 


190 


WHAT   IS    EDUCATION — CARGO   OR    MOTIVE    POWER? 

sail.    Columbus  did  not  study  geography;  he  made  it. 

It  is  a  very  human  tendency  to  think  that  what 
mankind  does  not  yet  know,  no  one  can  learn.  And 
yet  it  must  be  perfectly  clear  to  every  one  that  the 
past  learning  of  mankind  cannot  be  allowed  to  hinder 
our  future  learning.  There  is  almost  everything  to 
learn  yet.  Mankind  has  not  gone  so  very  far,  when 
you  measure  its  progress  against  the  knowledge  that  is 
yet  to  be  gained,  the  secrets  that  are  yet  to  be  learned. 

One  good  way  to  hinder  progress  is  to  fill  a  man's 
head  with  all  the  learning  of  the  past ;  it  makes  him 
feel  that  because  his  head  is  full,  there  is  nothing  more 
to  learn.  Why,  you  could  take  a  thousand  men,  fill 
each  man's  head  full  of  knowledge — so  full  that  he 
could  learn  no  more — and  even  then  no  two  of  those 
men  would  be  learned  in  the  same  things.  Each  would 
be  calling  the  other  ignorant.  Merely  gathering  knowl- 
edge that  other  men  have  acquired  may  become  the 
most  useless  work  a  man  can  do.  The  only  fair 
standard  by  which  accumulated  knowledge  may  be 
judged  is  this:  Here  is  a  lot  of  knowledge.  Are  you 
capable  of  learning  it?  If  you  are  capable,  you  are 
an  intelligent  person.  If  you  are  not  capable,  you 
are  not.  If  this  or  that  subject  were  submitted  to  you 
to  be  learned,  you  could  learn  it.  Left  to  yourself, 
perhaps,  you  would  not  learn  it,  not  because  you 
are  incapable  of  learning  it,  but  simply  because  it  is 
not  the  kind  of  knowledge  that  your  life  or  genius 
requires. 

Here  is  a  man  who  knows  a  great  deal  about  sea- 
shells.  There  is  a  whole  science  of  sea-shells.  This 
learned  man  is  so  interested  in  sea-shells,  and  has 
gathered  so  much  knowledge  about  them,  that  he  has 
written  large  volumes  on  the  subject.  But  how  many 
even  of  our  learned  men  know  anything  about  sea- 
shells  ?  How  many  want  to  know  ?  And  yet — here  is 
the  point — they  are  capable  of  knowing,  they  would 
learn  mighty  quickly  if  a  knowledge  of  sea-shells  were 
of  any  use  to  them. 

All  of  us  learn  quickly  the  things  we  are  inter- 
ested in.  the  things  which  we  need  in  order  to  do  our 
work  in  the  world. 

Everybody  is  a  specialist.    The  baker  is  a  specialist 


FORD    IDEALS 


in  doughs  and  yeasts  and  ovens.  The  molder  is  a 
specialist  in  sands  and  molds  and  iron  "heats."  The 
horseshoer  is  a  specialist  in  hoofs  and  bellows  and 
welding  compounds.  Our  mothers  used  to  learn  more 
from  the  "feel"  of  cloth  than  could  be  written  in 
many  pages.     Everybody  is  a  specialist. 

Now,  just  how  much  knowledge  must  be  held  in 
common  by  everybody,  is  also  a  matter  of  fashion. 
It  is  largely  a  matter  of  the  class  of  people  you  want 
to  associate  with.  If  you  trot  in  one  class  you  will 
discover  that  you  are  expected  to  be  able  to  talk 
about  art,  and  music,  and  poetry  and  similar  subjects. 
Thousands  of  people  are  chattering  about  those  things 
who  don't  know  anything  about  them  at  all.  but  thev 
have  learned  the  phrases,  and  they  pass  for  "educated." 
A  scholar  of  wide  fame  said  just  a  little  while  ago — 
"It  is  now  possible  in  our  best  society  to  express 
opinions  about  a  book  without  having  read  it,  or  to 
gabble  about  art  without  knowing  a  single  fundamental 
principle." 

People  do  this  because  it  is  expected  of  them  and 
because  it  is  the  fashion.  Most  of  the  fads  of  societv 
are  intellectual  fads,  which  change  like  the  style  of 
hats. 

Of  course,  if  you  want  to  gather  knowledge  like 
pebbles  and  exhibit  it,  all  right.  There  is  one  form  of 
human  vanity.  But  to  flatter  yourself  that  you  are 
learned,  while  the  man  who  does  not  follow  your  fad 
is  unlearned,  is  to  add  a  vicious  flavor  to  your  self- 
flattery.  ,, 

There  is  a  young  fellow,  standing  before  you.  His 
skin  is  clear,  his  eyes  are  bright,  he  understands  what 
he  sees,  and  his  mind  is  awake.  He  doesn't  know 
everything.  As  educational  fashions  go  nowadays 
he  may  "know"  comparatively  little.  That  is,  his 
head  may  yet  be  unburdened  by  a  load  of  facts  out  of 
books. 

No,  he  doesn't  know  everything.  But  as  you  look 
at  him.  as  you  note  his  comprehending  gaze,  as  you 
mark  the  cool  glance  of  his  eyes,  this  thought  comes 
to  you :  "He  doesn't  know  everything,  but  there  is 
nothing   he    could    not    know    if    he    wanted    to;    and 

192 


WHAT    IS    EDUCATION — CARGO    OR    MOTIVE    POWER? 

when  he  chooses  his   work   in   life,   he   will   learn   it 
clear  through  to  the  end  and  beyond." 

He  doesn't  have  much  knowledge,  but  he  has  a 
lot  of  brains. 

And,  listen ! — if  you  are  ever  given  a  choice  be- 
tween brains  and  knowledge,  choose  brains. 

With  brains  you  can  get  any  form  of  knowledge 
you  need.  But,  better  than  that — with  brains  you 
can  use  any  kind  of  knowledge  that  you  have.  With- 
out brains,  no  amount  of  gathered  knowledge  will 
ever  amount  to  a  straw. 

^  The  best  thing  a  book  does  for  a  man  is  to  make 
him  think.  All  that  a  school  can  do  for  a  man  is  to 
teach  him  how  to  think.  "^ 

It  isn't  what  you  get  out  of  a  book,  but  what  a 
book  pulls  out  of  you,  That  makes  books  useful. 

A  man  is  like  a  well.  There  is  a  lot  in  him,  if  he 
can  only  get  it  out.''  Sometimes  a  book,  or  a  conversa- 
tion, or  a  course  of  instruction,  acts  on  him  like  prim- 
ing on  a  pump — it  brings  out  of  him  what  is  in  him. 
And  that  is  all  that  Education  means. 

A  man  is  like  wood  or  stone.  Some  kinds  of 
stones  you  can  bring  to  a  high  degree  of  polish.  Some 
kinds  of  wood,  too.  But  many  indispensable  stones 
are  rough  and  cannot  be  brought  to  a  polish.  So 
with  some  kinds  of  wood.  All  men  do  not  take  a  pol- 
ish. Webster  did ;  but  Lincoln  didn't.  And  it  is  a 
big  mistake  to  say  that  the  polish  counts  for  all.  It 
is  the  texture  that  counts.  And  the  texture  of  a  man 
is  his  vitality,  his  energy,  his  character,  his  courage 
and  his  rock-bottom  brain   power. 


193 


When  in  Doubt — Raise  Wages! 


THE  first  step  to  take  in  a  situation  like  the  pres- 
ent is  to  raise  wages  where  necessary.  Simply 
raise  wages.  There  may  be  other  steps  necessary  to 
make,  there  may  be  other  improvements  to  be  insti- 
tuted, but  this  is  the  thing  that  ought  to  be  done  at 
once  and  widely — raise  wages.  Nothing  that  anyone 
can  do  in  the  time  at  our  disposal  can  meet  the  situa- 
tion so  thoroughly,  nothing  will  go  so  far  to  restore 
confidence  and  establish  a  sense  of  the  justice  of  our 
social  intention,  as  just  to  raise  wages. 

But  this  is  the  one  step  which  the  speculative  and 
profiteering  world  seems  determined  not  to  do. 

"Why  not  do  something  else?"  they  say.  And 
so  we  begin  to  see  all  sorts  of  substitutes  offered  for 
the  simple  solution  of  raising  wages. 

There  can  be  little  or  no  doubt  that  many  of  the 
"investigations"  which  come  up  like  mushrooms  in 
times  of  great  public  complaint,  are  mere  substitutes 
for  the  real  and  practical  remedy,  which  is  the  in- 
crease of  wages. 

If  investigations  had  ever  proved  of  practical  as- 
sistance to  the  producing  class,  if  they  had  ever  really 
corrected  the  basic  abuses,  we  might  view  them  with 
more  hopefulness.  But  what  have  they  ever  accom- 
plished? Have  they  ever  made  any  appreciable  dif- 
ference in  the  life  problem  of  the  working  man? 

Investigations  have,  as  a  rule,  been  substitutes  for 
the  direct  cure.  When  public  impatience  approaches 
the  breaking  point,  then  someone  seeks  to  allay  it  with 
an  "investigation."  The  result  usually  is  that  the 
point  of  the  investigation  is  changed,  and  before  the 
work  is  over  it  has  been  cleverly  maneuvered  into  a 
political  boom  for  or  against  somebody.  It  develops 
a  "hero"  or  a  "goat,"  and  the  real  problem  is  left  just 
where  it  was  before. 

There  is  just  now  a  "food  investigation"  gathering 
force  in  all  parts  of  the  country.     No  one  can  say 


WHEN    IN    DOUBT — RAISE    WAGES  ! 

aught  against  it.  It  is  high  time  we  knew  all  the 
details  of  profiteering  in  food.  It  is  high  time  some- 
one discovered  and  exposed  the  faults  in  our  system 
which  permit  even  the  people's  hread  to  be  put  at  the 
mercy  of  gamblers. 

But,  does  anyone  honestly  expect  that  the  investi- 
gation will  have  more  than  a  nominal  and  temporary 
effect?  Does  anyone  believe  that  prices  will  ever 
again  be  what  they  were  ten  years  ago?    No. 

We  have  been  on  the  upgrade  on  food  prices  for 
ten  years.  If  memories  were  not  so  short,  if  there 
were  some  sort  of  accounting  in  the  household,  it 
would  be  shown  that  food  began  to  advance  a  decade 
ago  and  that  we  were  in  the  pinch  o"f  high  prices  even 
before  the  European  war  began.  Did  anybody  offer 
to  investigate  then?  No.  We  saw  to  it  that  certain 
wage  advances  were  made  to  meet  the  rising  costs. 

Then,  fortunately  for  the  speculators,  the  war 
came  on  and  proved  a  handy  alibi  for  the  next  four 
years.  But  two  months  after  the  war  had  ended,  the 
price  of  food  in  the  United  States  had  advanced  25 
per  cent  over  war  prices. 

The  country  began  to  murmur,  then  to  protest, 
then  to  threaten.  There  was  but  one  obvious  thing 
to  do — raise  wages.  When  a  man  is  overboard,  he 
needs  a  life  preserver.  You  can  investigate  the  acci- 
dent afterward.  When  a  nation  is  actually  in  dis- 
tress over  the  food  problem,  when  a  people  have  to 
omit  the  other  requirements  of  life  in  order  to  con- 
centrate their  attention  upon  the  matter  of  getting 
food,  the  first  need  is  to  relieve  that  situation,  relieve 
it  immediately.     You  can  investigate  afterward. 

Any  difficulty  with  the  food  supply  of  a  people, 
especially  where  the  'difficulty  is  a  money  difficulty,  is 
equal  to  an  emergency — a  war  emergency,  if  you  will 
— and  should  be  met  by  provisions  for  the  people's 
safety.  "I^ublic  safety"  includes  a  safe  margin  of 
food  obtainable  without  dangerous  anxiety  on  the 
])art  of  the  people. 

The  concealed  logic  of  most  "food  investigations" 
would  run  somewhat  on  this  line:  "W'e  nuist  do 
something.  If  we  raise  wages,  that  will  enable  the 
jieople  to  buy  food,  bul  it  will  reduce  our  |)rofits.      If 

195 


FORD    IDEALS 


we  force  a  reduction  of  prices,  that  will  hit  our  profits, 
too.  The  best  way  to  do  is  to  have  an  "investigation" 
and  this  will  educate  the  people  as  to  the  reasons  for 
high  prices ;  if  skillfully  conducted  it  will  frighten 
out  the  little  profiteers,  and  the  big  profiteers  will  be 
whitewashed  and,  in  effect,  licensed  to  continue." 

Now,  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world  from 
whose  standpoint  you  view  the  matter.  The  only 
safe  point  of  view  for  any  lover  of  the  security  and 
prosperity  of  his  country  to  take  is  the  point  of  view 
of  the  consumer,  of  the  workman's  wife  who  goes 
to  the  store  with  a  greatly  shrunken  dollar,  of  the 
workman  himself  who  finds  that  his  utmost  labor 
will  scarcely  provide  a  living.  These,  in  the  last  an- 
alysis, constitute  the  food  problem  and  it  must  be 
investigated  from  their  standpoint  and  relieved  in  a 
way   that   will   relieve   them. 

Obviously  the  man  with  a  family  is  not  going  to 
worry  about  potatoes  being  $2.50  a  bushel,  if  he  has 
the  $2.50.  Obviously  he  is  not  going  to  be  anxious 
about  the  high  cost  of  living  if,  after  paying  for  his 
living,  he  has  the  same  proportionate  amount  of 
money  left  over  to  put  aside  against  a  rainy  day. 

To  come  down  to  the  human  side  of  the  question 
as  it  affects  our  producers,  the  problem  never  has 
been  the  high  cost  of  living  but  the  inadequate  rate  of 
wages.  They  pay  willingly  if  they  have  it.  But  they 
don't  have  it.  Wages  have  not  kept  pace  with  cost 
increases.  The  result  is  very  serious  in  our  most 
vital  interests.  You  cannot  pinch  the  American  home 
without  injuring  the  heart  and  efficiency  of  the  nation. 

Raise  the  wages  first  so  that  the  people  may  live 
without  anxiety  during  the  period  of  your  investiga- 
tion, and  then  proceed  with  your  examination  of  the 
whole  food  system.  But  do  not,  as  you  value  your 
country's  security  and  happiness — do  not  substitute 
an  "investigation"  for  definite  first  aid. 

Everybody  knows  what  the  result  of  an  investiga- 
tion will  be.  There  will  be,  first,  a  great  uproar  con- 
cerning hoarded  food.  This  will  not  touch  the  great 
hoards  of  the  chief  food  makers,  but  only  the  local 
stocks.  Already  there  have  been  seizures  in  some 
of   the   large   cities   of   the    country,   and   the   figures 

196 


WHEN    IN    DOUBT — RAISE    WAGES  ! 

that  have  been  given  out  look  very  imposing  in  the 
newspapers,  but  they  shrink  to  triviaHty  when  divided 
by  the  population  of  the  city  in  which  the  stocks  were 
found.  The  discovery  of  a  million  dozens  of  eggs 
in  a  city  of  1,200,000  population  simply  means  that 
that  city  is  one  dozen  eggs  ahead  per  person — a  week's 
supply. 

Then  it  will  be  discovered  that  the  little  local  re- 
tailers have  profiteered  a  cent  or  two  on  trust  products, 
and  they  will  be  severely  criticised  for  it,  although  it 
will  never  be  published  that  the  little  local  retailers 
are  making  less  under  the  high  price  regime  than  be- 
fore. That  is  a  curious  fact :  the  fortunes  and  div- 
idends of  the  big  profiteers  show  upward  curves  of 
increase ;  the  little  fellows  are  barely  scraping  along. 
But  punish  the  little  fellows ! 

And  then  it  will  be  discovered  that  the  cost  of 
producing,  preparing  and  marketing  food  has  really 
increased.  It  will  be  possible  to  show  that  the  farmer 
has  received  a  well-merited,  though  not  extravagant, 
share  of  the  increase,  and  that  certain  material  costs 
help  to  account  for  part  of  it ;  but  there  will  still  be 
the  fact  that  at  the  top  an  increased  profit  arises,  and 
that  no  one  engaged  in  the  food  business  has  really 
suffered. 

Everybody  "got  theirs,"  as  the  expression  is,  but 
they  have  gotten  it  from  the  man  whose  family  eats 
the  food.  And  that  man  too  commonly  has  not  kept 
even  within  economizing  distance  of  the  rise  in  food 
costs. 

The  figures  make  it  clear.  Wages  have  increased 
in  this  country  about  50  per  cent.  This  increase  is 
practically  eaten  up  by  the  increase  in  rents  alone,  not 
to  mention  clothing,  medical  attendance  and  fuel.  But 
when  you  measure  a  food  increase  running  all  the  way 
from  75  to  200  per  cent,  it  becomes  apparent  whether 
wages  have  kept  pace  or  not. 

If  it  were  ])lanned  to  produce  a  peasant  class  here 
in  America,  if  there  were  a  conspiracy  among  the 
money-kings  to  force  the  American  people  down  from 
the  standard  of  living  to  which  they  have  lifted  them- 
selves and  create  a  race  inured  to  poverty  and  dep- 
rivation,  it   could   not   be   better   attcmi)te(l   than   just 

197 


WHEN    IN    DOUBT — RAISE    WAGES  ! 

the  way  we  are  going  now.  No  wonder  the  preachers 
of  discontent  and  violence  are  seizing  upon  the  oc- 
casion to  say  that  now  that  the  war  is  over,  the  Amer- 
ican people  are  being  beaten  down  to  the  level  of  the 
lower,  class  British  workman  or  the  French  and  Ger- 
man peasant. 

The  emergency  remedy — regardless  of  what  the 
ultimate  cure  may  be — is  just  this :  some  profits  must 
be  turned  into  wages.  We  are  learning  that  it  is  no 
longer  possible  for  one  man  to  keep  the  profits.  A 
profit-making  business  is  the  creation  of  profit-mak- 
ing men,  and  the  only  way  the  obligation  of  the  busi- 
ness to  the  men  can  be  recognized  and  met  is  by  a 
scheme  of  profit-sharing.  Whatever  form  this  may 
take,  it  means  higher  wages. 

There  is  food  here.  There  are  people  needing  it. 
There  is  money  enough  to  transfer  the  food  from  those 
who  have  it  to  those  who  need  it.  We  shall  have  to 
see  that  the  money  reaches  the  points  which  this  food 
transaction  has  stinted. 

Having  done  this,  you  may  then  investigate  with 
all  the  thoroughness  possible,  without  the  suspicion 
of  making  it  a  substitute  for  the  right  and  needful 
thing. 


198 


Humanity  Is  Our  Basic  Wealth 


THE  principal  interest  in  this  country  is  not  busi- 
ness, markets  nor  profits ;  it  is  not  agriculture, 
manufacturing  nor  transportation ;  it  is  not  science, 
education  nor  any  form  of  material  progress :  the  com- 
modity of  principal  importance  in  this  country  is  just 
— People.  Without  people  the  other  interests  would 
have  no  meaning.  Without  people  they  would  not 
exist.  It  ought,  therefore,  to  be  plain  to  any  mind 
that  in  relative  importance  People  come  first,  and 
these  others  second. 

We  pause  here  for  a  moment  to  permit  the  wise- 
acres to  cry,  "Platitude!"  Any  truth  that  is  incon- 
veniently plain,  too  plain  to  be  relished  and  yet  too 
true  to  be  ignored,  is  shelved  by  the  cry  of  "plati- 
tude."    But  somehow  it  doesn't  stay  shelved. 

People  sometimes  say,  "Yes,  yes,  we  know  all 
about  that.  Don't  keep  repeating  it.  Everyone  agrees, 
but  don't  make  the  truth  a  nuisance  by  insisting  upon 
it." 

But  does  everyone  know,  and  does  everyone  agree  ? 
Certainly  there  is  little  evidence  of  it  in  the  situation 
which  confronts  us  today. 

Here  we  are  faced  by  a  condition  of  atfairs  which 
may  hold  for  the  world  greater  danger  than  even  the 
war  held;  we  are  at  a  time  when  the  mistaken  policy 
of  greedy  economic  powers  may  set  loose  tendencies 
from  which  humanity  might  never  recover — start 
lesions  in  the  social  organism  that  could  never  be 
healed.  And  yet  do  we  ever  hear  that  the  place  to 
begin  our  cure  of  the  illness  is  with  the  People? 

No,  we  hear  plenty  of  wise  talk  about  protecting 
the  market,  protecting  the  expectations  of  those  who 
bought  low  to  sell  high  (how  remarkably  tender  this 
country  has  become  of  the  gambling  game  of  the 
speculative  profiteer!),  protecting  this  or  that  bad 
business  condition  due  to  mistaken  theories  that  ought 
to  be  destroyed  so  thoroughly  that  they   shall  never 

199 


FORD    IDEALS 


deceive  the  business  world  again — we  hear  anything 
and  everything  except  what  can  and  should  be  done 
for  the  relief  and  protection  of  the  People! 

Our  wise  men  seem  to  believe  that  the  People  are 
like  the  earth,  a  foundation  that  cannot  be  moved,  a 
platform  on  which  any  kind  of  business  or  market 
program  may  be  safely  staged.  But,  the  constant 
danger  of  surprise  is  just  here — the  people  are  not 
a  stable  mass  on  which  anything  whatever  can  be 
built ;  they  are  not  the  unchangeable  quantity  that  the 
soil  of  the  earth  is;  they  are  subject  to  change,  to 
independent  action. 

Decrease  of  confidence  is  worse  than  decrease  of 
profits. 

And  worse  even  than  the  lowering  of  the  climax 
of  business  records  is  the  lowering  of  the  morale  of 
the  People. 

We  can  recover  from  almost  any  deterioration  in 
this  country  except  a  deterioration  of  the  People. 

Why,  look  at  it  a  minute.  What  have  we  been 
doing  the  past  10  years?  We  have  been  trying  to 
get  a  better  class  of  people.  American  business  saw 
very  clearly  a  few  years  ago  that  its  success  depended 
on  the  elevation  of  the  human  standard  in  every  in- 
dustry. We  started  educational  and  Americanization 
work.  We  supplied  higher  living  standards.  We  en- 
couraged an  increase  of  intelligence  and  self-respect 
and  a  higher  level  of  material  needs.  And  we  sup- 
plied the  increased  wages  necessary  to  maintain  these 
desirable  human  qualities. 

What  has  happened  to  that  clear  vision?  Surely 
something  has  happened  to  it.  In  the  present  condi- 
tion of  national  affairs  we  have  scarcely  thought  of 
the  People  at  all.  We  have  thought  of  Things,  Things, 
Things.  We  can  afford  to  make  a  big  sacrifice  in 
Things  if  that  will  prevent  a  deterioration  of  the 
American  standard  of  human  values. 

Take  the  housing  condition,  for  example.  Isn't  it 
true  that  we  hear  more  of  the  need  of  the  landlords 
to  charge  more  rent  than  we  do  of  the  need  of  the 
people  to  be  housed?  The  financial  element  is  dis- 
cussed to  the  almost  entire  exclusion  of  the  human 
element. 

200 


HUMANITY   IS  OUR  BASIC  WEALTH 

There  is  a  very,  very  serious  lack  of  housing  fa- 
cilities in  all  our  industrial  centers  and  it  is  working 
social  deterioration  to  an  observable  degree.  There 
is  too  much  crowding  for  health  and  morals.  There 
are  too  many  "come  downs"  from  decent  living  quar- 
ters to  unbearable  ones — quite  too  many  for  the  self- 
respect  of  thousands  of  families  who  were  just  be- 
ginning to  taste  the  delights  of  clean,  roomy,  modern, 
wholesome  living  conditions.  There  is  too  much 
crowding  among  unmarried  work-people,  thus  doing 
away  with  the  moral  and  physical  hygienic  value  of 
personal  privacy  and  freedom. 

In  fact,  if  there  were  a  deliberate  conspiracy  to 
lower  the  whole  line  of  American  standards  of  liv- 
ing, it  could  not  be  accomplished  more  surely  than  by 
just  bringing  about  such  a  lack  of  housing  accommo- 
dations as  we  are  now  suflfering. 

Of  course,  it  will  be  asked,  "Why  are  there  fewer 
houses?  Are  there  so  many  more  people  in  the 
world?"  There  are  fewer  people  in  the  world.  The 
lack  of  housing  can  be  traced  directly  to  the  greatly 
increased  appeal  of  industrialism  to  the  people  during 
the  past  five  years.  There  are  fewer  people  in  the 
world  but  they  have  suddenly  become  newly  distrib- 
uted ;  there  are  more  people  in  the  cities.  The  housing 
problem  is  a  problem  of  cities  and  of  such  smaller 
towns  as  have  industrial  interests. 

Industrialism  happens  to  be  the  cause,  in  this  way : 
first,  the  war  rate  of  wages  enabled  many  families  to 
move  into  better  houses—which  is  very  desirable,  of 
course,  though  it  is  a  reflection  on  the  conditions 
which  existed  licfore  the  war  when  families  lived  in 
unfit  conditions.  .Second,  the  families  who  formerly 
occupied  a  house  between  them,  were  enabled  by  war 
wages  to  take  a  whole  house ;  and  this  tended  to  de- 
crease the  number  of  available  houses.  And  third, 
there  was  a  great  influx  from  the  agricultural  dis- 
tricts to  the  city  factories.  11iis  was  a  movement  so 
vast  in  its  pro])ortions  as  to  constitute  a  migration — 
hundreds  of  thousands  moving  from  (he  country  into 
the  city  lured  by  the  prospect  of  hii^li  wages  for  war 
work. 

In  one  city  of  the  United  States  which  before  the 

201 


FORD    IDEALS 


war  always  had  a  comfortable  housing  margin,  there 
are  now  25,000  families  wondering  where  they  can 
live.  There  are  no  houses  to  rent.  Such  houses  as 
may  be  rented  are  held  at  rentals  which  in  themselves 
constitute  a  serious  hardship  upon  needy  people. 

Out  of  this  condition  has  arisen  a  great  volume  of 
complaint  and  discussion.  Here  and  there  an  indi- 
vidual employer  has  adopted  the  role  of  house-builder 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  employes,  but  in  the  main  the 
condition  remains  unchanged. 

There  is  vast  complaint  against  rent  profiteers  and 
some  attempts  have  been  made  to  regulate  the  rapacity 
of  their  greed,  but  none  has  been  successful.  Again 
therfe  is  a  great  defense  made  of  landlords.  And  so  it 
goes  on  and  on,  everything  discussed  and  nothing 
done,  every  interest  protected  and  the  People  left  to 
get  along  the  best  way  they  can. 

That  is  the  danger.  After  all,  it  is  not  a  question  of 
houses.  It  is  not  a  question  of  rent.  It  is  a  question 
of  People. 

Transfer  your  interest  to  the  food  question  and 
the  same  rule  applies.  It  is  not  a  question  of  profits. 
It  is  not  a  question  of  saving  speculative  values  in 
storage  house  stocks.  It  is  not  a  question  of  steadying 
the  market.     It  is  a  question  of  People. 

Simply  change  the  complexion  of  the  emergency. 
Suppose  it  were  a  disease  sweeping  the  land.  Every- 
body would  then  see  that  it  is  a  question  of  People. 
No  one  would  stop  to  consider  anything  else.  Of 
course,  the  element  of  social  fear  is  more  active  in 
great  plagues ;  we  do  what  we  can  for  the  victims  in 
order  to  save  ourselves  from  contagion.  With  house- 
less families,  it  is  different ;  we  do  not  fear  we  will 
"catch"  their  homelessness.  With  hungry  People  it 
is  different,  too;  we  do  not  fear  we  will  "catch"  their 
hunger.  Yet  in  permitting  these  conditions  to  exist 
we  are  encouraging  an  epidemic  of  low  morale  and 
discontent  which  may  breed  social  dangers  from  which 
none  of  us  can  escape.  If  our  sense  of  social  safety 
were  as  well  developed  as  our  sense  of  physical  safety, 
our  concern  for  affairs  today  would  be  greatly  in- 
creased. 

If  this  were  a  war  emergency,  what  would  we  do? 

202 


HUMANITY    IS   OUR   BASIC    WEALTH 

Why,  we  would  think  of  nothing  but  meeting  it.  All 
through  the  war  everyone  said,  "Money  doesn't  mat- 
ter. Money  is  of  no  use  whatever  unless  we  use  it 
to  clear  up  this  intolerable  condition." 

Well,  tlie  case  is  not  different  now.  Money  is  of 
no  more  use  now  than  it  was  then,  unless  it  be  used 
to  prevent  the  slump  in  American  living  ideals  which 
the  present  food  and  housing  conditions  will  bring 
about. 

The  great  fact  is  this :  This  is  a  situation  which 
can  be  met,  an  emergency  which  can  be  relieved  by 
money.  The  food  is  here.  The  material  for  housing 
is  here.  Money  will  make  both  available.  After  the 
emergency  is  met  it  will  be  time  enough  to  take  steps 
to  prevent  its  recurrence.  In  the  meantime  infinite 
damage  is  being  done  to  our  first  wealth,  our  most 
precious  wealth,  the  one  element  which  gives  our  na- 
tional resources  any  value  at  all — the  People.  If 
money  can  prevent  a  blow  being  delivered  to  their 
ideals  and  confidence,  money  must  be  used  to  do  it. 

Not  as  a  dole.  In  higher  wages  first,  so  that  each 
family  can  meet  its  own  needs  and  prevent  any  de- 
terioration of  health,  or  courage  or  self-respect.  And 
in  investment  next — each  man  of  means  building 
houses  by  the  hundred  until  the  last  homeless  family 
shall  be  under  its  own  ample  roof. 

There  will  be  just  as  much  money  in  the  country 
afterward  as  before.  It  will  simply  have  been  used 
to  meet  an  emergency,  that's  all.  But  what  is  better 
than  money,  there  will  be  a  strong  American  People, 
maintained  in  their  strength,  in  their  initiative  and  in 
their  respect  for  themselves  and  reverence  for  our 
country. 


203 


Managers  and  Men  Are 
Partners 


WHEN  a  man  has  a  business  the  responsibilities 
of  which  he  cannot  carry  alone,  he  looks  for  a 
suitable  partner.  He  realizes  without  any  special 
thought  or  argument  that  if  he  is  to  secure  certain 
desirable  qualities  in  his  partner  he  must  be  ready 
to  give  assurance  that  those  same  qualities  will  be 
present  in  himself.  That  is  to  say,  expecting  loyalty, 
he  will  stand  ready  to  be  loyal.  He  recognizes  that 
partnership  in  business,  to  be  most  successful,  must 
be  something  more  than  a  mere  financial  arrangement ; 
he  recognizes  that  it  involves  certain  co-operative  re- 
lations, and  that  if  these  are  not  properly  adjusted  the 
partnership  will  be  a  failure. 

A  partner  is  not  one  who  takes  part  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  business,  but  one  who  contributes  part 
to  the  success  of  a  business.  Partnership  is  a  positive 
relation. 

Now,  sometimes  the  partner  contributes  capital ; 
sometimes  skill  and  experience ;  most  commonly  he 
contributes  only  his  labor.  It  is  the  latter  form  of 
partnership,  commonly  called  "employment,"  which 
concerns  us  now. 

It  is  not  usual  to  speak  of  an  employe  as  a  "part- 
ner," and  yet  what  else  is  he?  Whenever  a  man  finds 
the  management  of  a  business  too  much  for  his  own 
time  or  strength,  he  calls  in  assistants  who  take  part, 
or  partnership,  in  the  management  with  him.  Why, 
then,  when  a  man  finds  the  production  part  of  a  busi- 
ness too  much  for  his  own  two  hands  should  he  deny 
the  title  of  "partner"  to  those  who  come  into  the 
factory  and  help  him  to  ])roduce  ? 

Every  business  that  employs  more  than  one  man 
is  a  partnership,  whether  it  is  legally  so  termed  or  not. 
We  may  deny  it  as  much  as  we  please,  we  may  resent 
what  it  implies,  but  nevertheless  it  is  a  fact.    The  mo- 

204 


MANAGERS   AND  MEN  ARE  PARTNERS 

ment  a  man  calls  in  assistance  in  his  business,  even 
though  the  assistant  be  but  a  boy,  that  moment  he  has 
taken  a  partner.  He  may  himself  be  sole  owner  of 
the  resources  of  the  business,  sole  director  of  its  op- 
erations, but  only  as  he  remains  sole  manager  and 
sole  producer  can  he  retain  the  title  of  "independent." 

No  man  is  independent  as  long  as  he  has  to  de- 
pend on  another  man  to  help  him. 

The  employer  is  not  independent ;  he  cannot  go 
down  into  his  factory  and  with  his  own  two  hands 
produce  sufficient  to  maintain  the  business.  He  is  de- 
pendent on  other  men  coming  in  and  helping  him. 

The  employe  is  not  independent ;  with  his  meager 
facilities  he  cannot  produce  articles  up  to  modern  re- 
quirements. He  is  dependent  on  other  men  who  have 
created  improved  means  and  methods  of  production, 
who  have  cultivated  the  market,  who  have  the  gift  of 
organization  and  administration  which  enable  him  to 
use  his  acquired  skill. 

As  our  present  social  life  is  organized,  the  one 
without  the  other  is  helpless,  as  is  proved  by  every 
dispute  that  stops  the  wheels  of  production. 

It  is  useless  for  one  group  or  the  other  to  take 
airs  to  itself  as  if  it  were  the  one  indispensable  unit. 
Both  are  indispensable,  and  one  can  unduly  assert  its 
importance  not  only  at  the  expense  of  the  other  but 
at  its  own  expense  as  well.  It  is  utterly  foolish  for 
the  groups  to  think  of  themselves  as  groups  at  all — 
they  are  partners ;  and  when  they  pull  and  haul  against 
each  other,  they  simply  injure  the  organization  in 
which  they  are  partners  and  from  which  they  draw 
their  support. 

Now,  so  much  for  foundation  truth.  Not  every- 
one, of  course,  will  agree  with  this  view  of  the  rela- 
tion between  so-called  "capital  and  labor."  But  it  is 
very  significant  that  in  these  times  no  responsible  man 
will  openly  disagree.  This  question:  if  the  employe 
is  not  a  partner,  what  is  he? — is  a  hard  question  to 
evade.  It  is  a  much  harder  question  to  answer  if 
you  desire  to  regard  the  employe  as  not  belonging  to 
the  business. 

The  fact  is,  we  are  uj)  against  the  problem  of  Ini- 

205 


FORD    IDEALS 


man  relations  today,  and  w£  are  up  against  it  in  a 
serious  way. 

Not  that  the  problem  of  human  relations  is  a  hard 
one,  but  it  has  been  neglected  so  long  that  it  seems 
more  difficult  than  it  really  is.  Human  relations, 
especially  in  industry,  have  become  the  subject  of  first 
importance  today  not  because  of  any  fundamental 
change  in  life,  but  because  they  always  were  of  first 
importance  only  heretofore  we  failed  to  recognize  it. 

Yet  we  had  many  warnings.  It  was  always  easy 
to  settle  the  material  part  of  any  undertaking.  Wood, 
iron,  sand,  brick,  machinery — ^these  were  never  a 
problem.  A  brick  was  used  in  a  conspicuous  place  or 
in  an  obscure  place  as  the  user  desired,  to  be  cut  or 
broken  or  crushed  without  compunction,  as  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  case  required.  Bricks  were  always 
bricks.  Many  times  the  material  part  of  an  under- 
taking was  arranged  beautifully,  but  just  as  it  seemed 
that  the  whole  business  was  to  start  ofif  smoothly, 
something  went  wrong  with  the  human  equation. 

That  is  the  only  difficulty  in  the  country  today. 
The  material  world  is  just  what  it  was,  but  some- 
thing has  happened  in  the  human  world. 

Now,  if  anything  went  wrong  with  machinery 
or  the  mechanical  processes  of  production,  we  would 
immediately  know  what  to  do.  We  would  deal  with 
machinery  according  to  the  law  of  machinery,  with 
production  according  to  the  laws  of  efficient  produc- 
tion. We  would  not  expect  machinery  to  exhibit 
qualities  that  belonged  to  the  animal  world,  nor  would 
we  regard  production  from  any  standpoint  but  its  own. 

Well,  if  we  are  to  establish  human  relations  on  a 
dependable  basis  we  shall  have  to  recognize  that  these 
working  partners  of  the  business  are  human.  If  you 
confuse  them  with  the  machinery,  you  will  discover 
they  have  the  power  of  will.  If  you  try  to  confuse 
them  with  material  processes  of  any  character  what- 
ever, you  will  find  that  men  live  by  mental  and  spiritual 
values. 

American  business  could  well  alTord  to  devote  the 
next  six  months  to  a  thorough  overhauling  of  the 
standard  of  human  relations  throughout  every  line 
of  activity. 

206 


MANAGERS    AND    MEN    ARE    PARTNERS 

You  may  talk  about  material  and  efficiency  and 
profits  from  now  until  the  end  of  the  world,  but  if 
you  omit  the  human  equation,  all  your  plans  are  due 
for  a  fall  some  day. 

There  is  coal  and  ore  aplenty  in  our  mines ;  our 
fields  supply  us  with  the  best  and  yield  an  immense 
surplus ;  business  awaits  us  in  overwhelming  volume 
both  at  home  and  abroad ;  if  we  are  held  up  anywhere, 
it  is  in  a  lack  of  a  spirit  of  partnership  between  those 
who  plan  and  those  who  execute  the  work  of  a  great 
business. 

You  don't  use  force  against  machinery  when  it 
does  not  work;  you  adjust  it.  What  folly  it  is  to 
think  that  force  will  take  the  place  of  righteous  ad- 
justment in  human  relations ! 

The  difficulty  has  been  that  in  the  swift  and  en- 
thusiastic development  of  American  industrial  enter- 
prise, the  first  and  only  thought  of  both  employers 
and  employes  was  given  to  the  business.  Perhaps  it 
is  to  that  fact  that  American  business  owes  its  pres- 
ent standing  in  the  world,  that  Americans  of  every 
degree  have  given  it  their  undivided  effort  and  atten- 
tion. 

But  now  that  the  material  side  of  business  has 
reached  a  growth  that  makes  description  impossible 
and  dwarfs  all  the  records  of  human  achievement,  it 
is  becoming  painfully  apparent  even  to  the  dullest 
vision  that  we  shall  now  have  to  catch  up  on  the 
human  side. 

Some  of  us  saw  this  before  others  did.  But  it  is 
evident  now  in  the  general  condition  of  society.  There 
is  a  definite  demand  that  the  human  side  be  elevated 
to  a  position  of  equal  importance  with  the  material 
side.  And  it  is  going  to  be  done.  It  is  just  a  ques- 
tion whether  it  is  going  to  be  done  wisely,  in  a  way 
that  will  conserve  the  material  side  which  now  sus- 
tains us,  or  unwisely  and  in  such  a  way  as  shall  take 
from  us  all  the  benefit  of  the  work  of  the  past  50 
years.  Business  represents  our  national  livelihood,  it 
reflects  our  economic  progress,  and  gives  us  our  place 
among  other  nations.  We  do  not  want  to  jeopardize 
that.  What  we  want  is  a  better  recognition  of  the 
human  element  in  that  business.     And  surely  that  can 

207 


FORD    IDEALS 


be  achieved  without  dislocation,  without  loss  to  any- 
one, indeed  with  an  increase  of  benefit  to  every  human 
being. 

And  the  secret  of  it  all  is  in  a  recognition  of  hu- 
man partnership.  Until  each  man  is  absolutely  self- 
sufficient  unto  himself,  needing  the  services  of  no 
other  human  being  in  any  capacity  whatever,  we  shall 
never  get  beyond  the  need  of  partnership. 

We  have  always  been  partners  whether  we  ac- 
knowledged it  or  not,  and  it  has  been  our  refusal  to 
acknowledge  it  which  has  created  an  atmosphere  of 
antagonism  instead  of  one  of  harmony  among  us.  It 
is  unnatural  to  deny  what  already  is,  and  the  denial 
brings  other  evils  with  it. 

Partnership  means  a  unity  of  endeavor,  a  loyalty 
of  effort,  a  sense  of  belonging  and  being  necessary,  a 
freedom  of  suggestion  and  initiative  in  the  business, 
and  a  sharing  in  the  profits  according  to  one's  con- 
tribution toward  making  these  profits.  If  the  employer 
wants  his  men  to  be  his  partners,  he  must  stand  ready 
to  be  their  partner.  If  he  expects  them  to  contribute 
to  his  business  achievements,  he  must  expect  to  con- 
tribute to  their  success,  too.  Partnership  means  con- 
tributing to,  as  well  as  taking  shares  from. 

The  fact  is  that  we  would  not  need  complex  and 
confusing  systems  if  we  only  had  the  proper  spirit. 
The  very  essence  of  right  human  relations  is  in  hav- 
ing the  right  spirit.  Nothing  is  impossible  of  satis- 
factory solution  and  adjustment  when  men  confer  in 
the  right  spirit,  and  the  right  spirit  is  simply  this — 
the  spirit  of  willingness  to  do  the  right  thing. 


20S 


New  Paths  to  Fame 


IT  ALL  depends  on  what  you  are  made  of  and  your 
point  of  view,  whether  such  times  as  the  present 
appear  to  you  as  the  end  of  all  opportunity  or  the  be- 
ginning of  the  new  years  of  surpassing  openings  for 
invention,  initiative  or  just  plain  productive  industry. 
There  never  was  a  better  time  to  be  young  than  just 
now.  In  spite  of  all  the  apparent  upset  and  unrest 
and  change,  these  times  are  richer  in  material  for 
new  combinations  of  grit  and  power  than  any  which 
this  country  has  seen  during  the  past  50  years. 

It  is  when  humanity  is  solidified,  and  every  proc- 
ess is  hardened  by  custom,  and  ways  of  doing  things 
become  set  and  fixed,  that  it  is  difficult  for  the  young 
man  to  create  something  of  his  own  and  get  a  new 
idea  started  on  its  way. 

But  in  times  like  these,  when  nearly  everything 
seems  ready  to  take  new  forms,  when  so  many  prob- 
lems are  pressing  for  solution,  everybody  is  hospitable 
to  new  ideas,  the  times  are  kind  to  new  enterprises, 
and  people  look  with  hopefulness  upon  anything  that 
promises  relief  and  benefit. 

The  pity  is  that  there  are  not  more  good  ideas  to 
take  advantage  of  these  favorable  circumstances. 

It  may  not  at  once  be  clear  to  the  young  man  why 
the  times  should  be  so  propitious.  But  it  can  be  made 
clear  by  a  simple  illustration.  It  is  a  common  remark 
that  opportunities  were  many  "when  the  country  was 
new."  It  means  that  before  the  life  of  the  nation 
became  limited  to  certain  channels  there  was  a  certain 
freedom  of  initiative,  there  was  a  clear  field  to  be 
laid  out  any  way  desired. 

Well,  in  a  better  sense  than  ever  before,  the  coun- 
try is  again  "new." 

In  pioneer  days  the  man  with  initiative  had  al- 
most nothing  to  work  with.  There  were  few  people, 
little  available  material,  limited  fields  for  develop- 
ment.    But  what  a  diiTcrence  nowadavs  !     Here  are 


FORD    IDEALS 

over  100,000,000  people.  Here  are  rich  stores  of 
materials  and  inexhaustible  resources,  and  there  is 
no  limit  to  expansion. 

The  country  is  "new"  again  with  every  advantage 
ready  to  the  hand  of  the  man  with  vision  enough  and 
courage  enough  to  go  in  and  mould  plastic  conditions 
to  his  idea. 

There  never  was  more  to  be  done;  there  never 
was  a  warmer  welcome  for  the  Doer ;  there  never  was 
so  much  backing  ready  waiting  for  the  man  with  a 
serviceable  idea.  The  future  of  America  is  being 
made  right  now,  and  the  shining  names  of  the  next 
half  century  will  be  names  which  today  are  wholly 
obscure. 

This  does  not  mean  that  we  are  predicting  the  ap- 
pearance of  great  men  of  genius  in  the  country.  The 
need  is  not  so  much  for  genius  as  for  vision  and 
courage. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  misunderstanding  about 
"great  men,"  anyway.  Great  men  are  only  men  who 
do  great  things,  and  it  frequently  occurs  that  they 
themselves  are  only  ordinary  men  who  have  shown 
extraordinary  devotion  to  their  own  idea  and  their 
own  job. 

It  isn't  genius  we  want  so  much  as  ordinary  ability 
used  for  all  it  is  worth.  Ordinary  ability  is  all  the 
world  needs ;  the  concentration  of  ordinary  ability  on 
the  problems  awaiting  solution. 

As  to  great  men  in  the  special  sense,  they  are 
usually  in  waiting  before  a  national  or  world  emer- 
gency. The  emergency  reveals  them.  The  recent  war 
created  no  great  men,  it  only  revealed  them,  called 
them  forth. 

But  with  successful,  useful  men  the  case  is  dif- 
ferent. They  are  the  result  of  the  reconstruction 
period  that  follows  an  emergency.  They  are  the  men 
who  take  advantage  of  the  new  combinations  of  cir- 
cumstances. With  conditions  to  be  rebuilt,  they  take 
the  opportunity  of  getting  in  on  the  ground  floor.  And 
the  ground  floor  was  never  so  large,  opportunities 
were  never  so  numerous  as  they  are  now. 

This  is  not  the  time  to  preach  success ;  this  is  the 
time  to  ]nit  into  practice  all  the  success  doctrine  you 

210 


NEW    PATHS    TO    FAME 

have  ever  heard.  The  present  moment  is  supremely 
the  moment  of  action. 

We  need  a  revival  of  old-fashioned  American  am- 
hition  to  get  ahead. 

The  gouging  and  gambling,  the  profiteering  and 
plunging  which  characterize  some  of  the  business  of 
today,  do  not  spring  from  the  American  spirit  of  "get- 
ting ahead."    They  are  destructive,  illegitimate,  false. 

American  ambition  is  first  to  DO  something, 
achieve  some  great  and  useful  service,  and  then  to 
reap  the  reward. 

We  ought  to  return  to  the  old-fashioned  system 
of  encouraging  boys  to  go  out  and  make  their  mark, 
and  to  deserve  well  of  their  fellow-men.  In  other 
days  boys  were  instilled  with  the  confidence  that 
nothing  was  too  high  for  an  American  boy  to  aspire 
toward.  And  it  is  just  as  true  today  as  it  was  then, 
indeed,  if  one  may  say  so,  it  is  truer,  for  where  there 
was  one  path  upward  in  those  days  there  are  a  hun- 
dred paths  now.  The  young  man  of  today  is  so  much 
better  otY  that  it  may  be  worth  while  to  indicate  it  in 
detail.  There  was  a  time  when  the  path  to  distinction 
and  service  in  this  country  was  almost  exclusively  a 
professional  path.  A  boy  could  study  law  and  gradu- 
ate into  politics.  Indeed,  to  wear  one's  hair  a  little 
longer  than  other  men's,  and  to  make  speeches  in  the 
legislature  was  once  considered  the  height  of  success. 
And  then  through  politics,  he  could  branch  into  what- 
ever business  happened  to  open  up. 

There  was  little  or  no  emphasis  laid  on  the  in- 
dustrial path.  Few  people  ever  thought  of  Work — 
plain  work — as  a  path  upward.  No.  It  must  be  pro- 
fessional, genteel,  dealing  with  the  abstract  ideas  of 
politics  and  government,  or  with  some  other  science. 

Today,  however,  all  that  is  changed.  The  first 
thing  the  majority  of  American  boys  think  of  as  a 
successful  career  is  not  some  statesman  making  a 
speech,  but  some  artisan  making  a  useftil  commodity, 
and  making  it  so  well  and  in  such  ([uantities  that  every- 
one buys  and  uses  it. 

Some  people  are  inclined  to  say  that  this  is  a 
descent  to  "materialism" — this  emphasis  on  niak'in,<;' 
things. 


FORD    IDEALS 

But  anyone  with  his  eyes  open  can  see  very  clearly 
that  the  major  part  of  our  trouble  today  is  just  a  lack 
of  this  kind  of  "materialism."  If  we  had  more  houses 
for  people  to  live  in,  if  we  had  more  railroad  cars  to 
carry  them  what  they  need,  if  we  had  more  means 
of  enabling  the  farmer  to  farm  more  land  with  less 
help,  if  we  had  better  and  more  productive  systems 
of  mining  coal  and  other  raw  materials — why,  that 
would  pretty  nearly  solve  all  the  troubles  that  afflict 
us  now. 

The  world  is  full  of  ideas  as  to  what  ought  to  be 
done — but  of  what  use  are  these  ideas  until  a  man 
comes  along  who  will  actually  do  the  things  and  set 
it  going? 

You  don't  have  to  be  a  statesman  to  help  the  world 
nor  a  philosopher,  nor  a  poet ;  you  have  only  to  think 
out  something,  perform  something  which  will  make  it 
easier  for  the  world  to  live. 

To  take  an  illustration  from  the  problem  of  the 
day : — the  man  who  could  multiply  houses  with  rapid- 
ity would  be  a  world  blessing  just  now.  We  make 
everything  quickly  but  houses.  We  manufacture  ma- 
chinery in  a  new  way,  we  fabricate  ships  differently 
than  was  ever  done  before,  but  we  build  houses  in 
practically  the  way  they  have  always  been  built. 

If,  for  example,  someone  should  discover  an  art 
which  would  enable  us  to  build  a  house  out  of  the 
earth  excavated  for  its  cellar,  what  a  boon  to  human- 
ity that  would  be !  Nor  is  the  idea  so  far-fetched  as 
it  may  seem.  One  reason  why  the  war-torn  portions  of 
France  are  being  restored  to  the  people  so  quickly  is 
that  the  French  dwelling  is  usually  constructed  out  of 
materials  found  on  the  premises.  The  French  family's 
house  is  literally  dug  out  of  the  earth. 

Go  to  the  root  of  all  the  so-called  "capital  and 
labor  difficulty"  today  and  what  do  you  find?  Simply 
the  lack  of  houses  for  people  to  live  in,  and  the  conse- 
quent high  prices  of  such  houses  as  there  are.  Or  a 
lack  of  food,  and  high  prices  of  such  food  as  there  is. 

All  the  difficulty,  you  will  observe,  is  due  to  the 
lack  of  production  of  such  articles  as  mankind  can 
produce.  Houses  are  a  product,  so  is  food,  so  is  every 
other  article  man  needs  in  his  living. 


NEW     PATHS    TO    FAME 

Well,  then,  the  way  to  serve  the  world  at  this  stage 
of  its  trouble  is  not  to  enunciate  new  laws,  nor  give 
it  a  new  art  or  literature,  but  simply  give  it  the  things 
it  is  suffering  for — houses,  food  and  the  various  arti- 
cles of  use. 

We  don't  need  statesmen  to  solve  the  difficulties 
of  our  country  at  this  time :  we  need  workers.  We 
need  men  who  will  tell  us  new  and  better  ways  to  pro- 
duce_what  we  lack.  We  need  fresh  eyes  to  examine 
our  old  methods  and  cut  them  down  where  they  are 
cumbersome  and  wasteful.  We  need  men  who  are 
young  enough  and  free  enough  to  cut  loose  from  the 
old  and  settled  ways,  and  break  new  paths  for  the 
world's  energy  to  use. 

This  is  the  call  that  awaits  ambitious  young  Amer- 
ica. Time  was  when  the  utmost  encouragement  you 
could  give  a  boy  was  to  say,  "You  may  be  President 
some  day."  But  now  we  can  say  to  him,  "You  may 
be  the  man  who  is  to  discover  the  new  way  of  housing 
the  people."  "You  may  be  the  man  who  is  to  revolu- 
tionize the  methods  by  which  food  is  produced." 
"You  may  be  the  man  who  will  teach  us  how  to  make 
a  pound  of  coal  do  the  work  of  ten  and  still  retain  all 
of  the  coal  for  heating  purposes." 


Let  Every  Man  Think 
for  Himself 


CONFERENCES  are  often  good  and  sometimes 
useful,  providing  the  right  people  confer.  Even 
when  conferences  do  not  end  in  agreement,  they  at 
least  end  in  a  clearer  understanding  of  what  the- parties 
claim.  But  a  clearer  understanding  does  not  neces- 
sarily make  for  agreement,  because  where  there  is  no 
desire  to  agree,  an  understanding  of  your  opponent's 
claim  simply  enables  you  to  attack  it  with  straighter 
aim.  This  was  illustrated  in  the  recent  Senate  in- 
vestigation of  the  steel  strike;  each  side  claimed  that 
its  contention  was  proved  by  the  other  side's  state- 
ment. The  better  they  understood  each  other,  the 
further  they  were  apart.  So  that  a  good  deal  more 
than  mere  conference  is  needed  in  important  dis- 
agreements. Conference  is  simply  the  bringing  to- 
gether of  the  several  elements  of  the  dispute.  If  the 
elements  be  like  oil  and  water,  they  will  not  mix.  If 
they  be  like  fire  and  powder,  there  will  be  a  blow-up. 
Conference  may  issue  in  conflict  as  well  as  in  co- 
operation. It  all  depends  on  the  things  involved,  and 
on  the  spirit  which  the  conferees  bring. 

The  difficulty  with  most  conferences  is  that  they 
are  too  small.  An  individual  or  a  small  group  wants 
to  be  taken  as  the  embodiment  of  the  grievances,  as- 
pirations, wisdom  and  determination  of  a  whole  class, 
yet  everyone  knows  how  difficult  it  is  for  another  to 
act  for  him  in  vital  matters.  We  select  a  little  hall 
holding  200,  and  we  try  to  pack  into  it  the  men  who 
claim  to  represent  every  phase  of  opinion  in  the 
United  States  upon  a  certain  emergency  question,  and 
the  result  is  we  make  speeches  and  debate  and  resolve 
and  pledge — and  leave  the  mass  of  the  interested  par- 
ties unenlightened  and  unbound  in  any  way. 

It  may  be  argued  that  everybody  cannot  go  to  the 
great  national   conferences.     But  maybe  there  would 


LET    EVERY    MAN    THINK    FOR    HIMSELF 

not  be  so  much  need  of  the  big  conferences  if  there 
were  more  little  ones — informal,  casual  ones  between 
man  and  man. 

Industrially,  there  should  be  such  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  all  the  conditions  by  both  parties,  and 
the  spirit  of  fair  adjustment  should  be  so  constantly 
operative,  that  a  stoppage  of  work  for  the  purpose  of 
fighting  each  other  by  argument  should  be  as  unnec- 
essary as  a  stoppage  of  work  to  keep  the  roof  from 
leaking. 

A  whole  lot  of  conferring  is  made  necessary  be- 
cause a  whole  lot  of  conferring  has  been  neglected. 

Things  have  come  to  a  pretty  pass  when  workmen 
can  only  speak  to  their  employer  through  the  medium 
of  a  government  committee,  and  when  employers  can 
only  speak  to  their  men  through  the  medium  of  agents 
whose  entire  interest — financial,  professional  and  so- 
cial— is  bound  up  in  the  continuance  of  a  quarrel  and 
the  fomenting  of  misunderstanding. 

The  blame  for  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  day-by-day 
neglect  of  daily  communication  between  employer  and 
employe. 

The  employer  who  knows  his  job  never  lets  a  bad 
condition  come  to  a  head  any  more  than  an  engineer 
who  knows  his  job  allows  his  engine  to  break  down 
before  he  repairs  it. 

The  employer  who  knows  his  job  does  not  permit 
bad  conditions  to  remain  a  day  after  they  are  dis- 
covered, any  more  than  an  aviator  would  allow  a  leak 
in  his  gas  tank  to  run  longer  than  was  required  to  fix  it. 

When  an  improving  eye  is  kept  constantly  on  the 
business,  when  an  employer  knows  all  that  his  men 
know  about  the  business,  when  a  spirit  of  partnership 
reigns  so  that  both  parties  feel  free  to  communicate 
one  with  the  other,  then  the  matters  which  tend  to 
grow  big  and  demand  big  conferences  to  settle  them, 
are  nipped  in  the  ])ud  and  never  allowed  to  work  harm 
either  to  the  conditions  of  the  business  or  the  rela- 
tions between  the  men  engaged  in  it. 

There  is  always  great  satisfaction  expressed  when 
a  conference  goes  ahead  to  settle  something.  But 
there  will  be  more  ground  for  satisfaction  when  con- 
ditions become  such  that  no  conferences  arc  needed. 


FORD    IDEALS 


Conference  indicates  that  the  parties  have  grown 
so  far  apart  that  something  extraordinary  is  required 
to  bring  them  together.  Absence  of  conferences  will 
indicate  that  the  parties  are  in  communication  and 
agreement  all  the  time,  which  should  be  their  normal 
state.  There  are,  however,  certain  naturally  opposed 
interests  which  cannot  be  exclusively  identified  with 
any  class,  which  ought  to  be  more  or  less  in  sincere 
conference  all  the  time. 

First,  there  is  the  conflict  between  Individual  In- 
terest and  Collective  Interest. 

We  are  learning  that,  even  though  we  may  possess 
the  power  to  satisfy  our  utmost  desire,  it  may  be  very 
unwise  to  use  it,  because  individual  interest  sometimes 
gets  into  the  way  of  collective  good.  We  can  live  to- 
gether in  society  only  as  we  recognize  the  balance  that 
should  exist  between  rights  and  duties.  What  we  call 
"rights"  are  usually  our  individual  rights ;  what  we 
call  "duties"  are  usually  the  rights  of  others. 

Men  sometimes  say  they  are  "claiming  their  rights" 
when  what  they  are  really  doing  is  infringing  on  the 
rights  of  others. 

There  should  be  a  subconscious  conference  always 
in  session  within  a  man's  heart,  and  its  subject  should 
be  the  maintenance  of  a  balance  between  the  individual 
and  the  collective  good. 

Sometimes  individual  good  is  collective  harm ;  in 
which  case  it  must  be  modified.  For  it  cannot  be  in- 
dividually good  in  an  enduring  way  if  it  is  collectively 
harmful,  since  the  individvial,  too,  is  part  of  the  col- 
lective interest  and  will  suffer  in  this  degree  from  his 
own  wrong-doing. 

Neither  should  the  collective  good  be  pushed  to 
the  extent  of  harming  the  individual.  That  is  the 
trouble  with  most  robust  theories  of  the  state — they 
make  the  collective  interest  everything  and  the  in- 
dividual  little  or  nothing. 

Freedom  and  progress  depend  on  keeping  the 
balance  between  these  two,  making  each  contribute 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  other. 

Many  of  the  problems  which  vex  our  life  today 
could  be  boiled  down  into  the  simple  statement  that 
individual  good  is  trying  to  increase  itself  at  the  ex- 

216 


LET    EVERY    MAN    THINK    FOR    HIMSELF 

peiise  of  the  collective  good.  It  cannot  be  done.  For 
a  time  it  may  seem  to  be  possible,  but  it  cannot  be 
done.  The  moment  one  or  the  other  interest  becomes 
selfishly  dominant,  the  law  of  compensation  is  dis- 
turbed and  that  moment  the  source  of  both  begins  to 
dry  up,  and  both  suffer. 

Again :  there  should  be  constant  conference  be- 
tween the  Present  and  the  Future.  We  sometimes 
forget  that  there  is  a  tomorrow  coming.  In  some 
respects  our  forefathers  forgot  that  generations  were 
to  follow  them ;  their  inability  to  foresee  the  future 
led  to  much  waste  of  energy  and  material. 

The  tendency  is  to  use  up  today  and  all  its  stores 
recklessly,  heedless  of  the  generations  to  follow.  Here 
is  where  individual  and  collective  interests  appear  again 
in  conflicting  attitudes.  Individual  desire  is  to  con- 
serve something  for  the  next  generation ;  the  father 
tries  to  prepare  the  future  for  his  son,  just  as  he  tries 
to  prepare  his  son  for  the  future.  But  collectively  we 
are  almost  entirely  indifferent  to  the  future.  It  is  with 
the  utmost  effort  that  any  legislation  can  be  secured 
which  conserves  the  natural  resources  of  the  country 
against  criminal  wastage,  and  saved  for  the  future. 

So  that  where  there  are  opposing  tendencies,  there 
ought  to  be  continuous  balancing  of  ends,  that  there 
may  be  no  destructive  overreaching. 

To  revert  to  the  industrial  situation  again :  where 
there  is  a  distinct  difference  between  the  individual  and 
the  collective  good,  there  ought  to  be  a  balancing  of 
their  claims  in  each  man's   mind. 

The  best  kind  of  conference  takes  place  in  the 
mind  of  the  man  who  calmly  balances  both  interests 
and  judicially  assigns  to  each  its  share.  If  one  in- 
terest absorbs  all,  then  the  reaction  that  conies  from 
the  other  interest  is  fatal.  Never  did  any  interest  go 
up  at  the  sore  cost  of  another  legitimate  interest  but 
it  came  down  again  in  loss  and  sorrow. 

We  are  swayed  too  much  by  the  speeches  of  others 
who  are  paid  to  speak,  by  the  writings  of  others  who 
are  paid  to  write ;  we  are  swayed  too  little  by  the 
judicial  thought  of  our  own  and  other  sincere  minds. 

Tiiere  is  a  danger  of  outside  conferences  taking 
the  place  of  our  own  thought. 

:\7 


FORD    IDEALS 

Let  every  man  think  for  himself.  Let  every  man 
call  a  conference  of  his  own  powers,  his.  Common 
Sense  in  the  chair,  his  desires  and  his  knowledge  of 
things  as  they  are  pleading  the  case  before  him.  Let 
every  man  be  his  own  judge.  There  is  safety  in  the 
quiet  thought  of  the  people,  safety  and  constructive 
progress. 

It  is  a  patriotic  duty — patriotic  not  only  to  the 
Country,  but  to  all  Humanity — in  these  days  when  to 
demand  is  to  have,  to  consider  carefully  what  the  end 
of  any  course  must  be.  All  of  us  have  common  sense 
enough  to  know  that  a  system  of  "everything  coming 
in  and  nothing  going  out"  is  just  as  disastrous  as  the 
opposite  course. 

Every  man  must  seek  the  solid  footing  on  which 
he  can  stand  secure  for  life,  and  that  footing  is  the 
same  for  every  one  of  us ;  a  decent  return  to  the 
world  for  our  living,  and  a  decent  return  from  the 
world  for  our  labor. 


218 


Universal  Training- 
Yes,  for  Usefulness 


IT  MAY  be  said  once  for  all  that  there  can  be  no 
objection  whatever  to  "universal  training."  The 
sooner  we  recognize  that  fact  and  get  down  to  con- 
structive details,  the  better  it  will  be  for  the  country 
and  the  people  of  the  country.  If  there  is  anything 
of  which  our  nation  shows  an  increasing  daily  need  it 
is  "universal  training,"  and  enough  energy  is  wasted  in 
debates  upon  the  point  to  start  the  whole  program 
and  give  it  a  strong  push  toward  success. 

We  have  a  sort  of  "universal  training"  now.  Our 
system  of  elementary  education  is  that.  We  require 
that  every  child  shall  be  trained  in  the  use  of  figures 
and  letters.  We  do  this  in  order  that  the  native  in- 
telligence of  the  people  may  be  developed  and  then 
liberated  into  usefulness.  Education  is  mostly  the 
giving  of  the  "know  how"  to  minds  that  are  capable 
of  doing,  once  they  know. 

We  are  insisting  on  that  in  our  industries,  too. 
Ability  to  read  and  write  is  an  important  factor  in 
obtaining  safety  in  our  industrial  operations.  Safety 
can  be  taught ;  much  of  it  can  be  taught  by  print ; 
but  if  the  factory  personnel  cannot  read,  of  what  use 
is  the  print?  So  we  establish  schools  in  our  factories 
in  order  that  men  may  be  taught  to  read  and  write, 
and  thus  be  brought  into  contact  with  printed  in- 
formation. A  mind  without  command  over  figures 
and  letters  is  like  a  country  without  postal  or  tele- 
graph service:  communication  is  very  slow  and  dif- 
ficult. 

^\'e  have  entered  upon  campaigns  in  which  w(^ 
try  to  bring  "universal  training"  to  a  city  or  state 
with  regard  to  health.  There  are  certain  diseases,  like 
tuberculosis  and  t_\phoid.  which  ina\-  be  as  totally  ex- 
terminated as  rattlesnakes  have  l)een.  But  it  cannot 
be  done  until  all  the  people  co-operate.     .\nd  in  order 

219 


FORD    IDEALS 

to  co-operate  they  must  be  instructed.  And  so  we 
enter  upon  campaigns  of  instruction,  and  we  can 
measure  the  results  very  accurately.  When  we  mobi- 
lize public  co-operation  for  any  of  these  activities,  we 
see  the  success  of  it  almost  immediately. 

The  principle  of  "universal  training,"  then,  is  quite 
firmly  established  in  our  common  life. 

The  difficulty  and  dissension  arises  when  we  try 
to  determine  just  what  form  that  universal  training 
shall  take. 

Some  men  say,  "We  ought  to  train  everybody  to 
shoot,"  and  so  they  make  the  slogan  read  thus :  "uni- 
versal military  training." 

Shooting  is  admittedly  not  a  productive  art.  We 
don't  use  it  in  our  daily  business.  Millions  of  people 
get  along  very  nicely  without  ever  firing  or  even  own- 
ing a  gun.  Indeed,  there  have  been  great  campaigns 
of  education  against  the  use  of  guns.  We  teach  boys 
that  to  use  guns  on  birds  is  a  very  destructive  sport, 
which  costs  the  nation  dearly  in  loss  of  bird  service 
to  our  crops.  We  have  laws  prohibiting  the  use  of 
guns  on  birds  whose  plumage  attracts  the  milliner. 
If  you  fire  a  gun  in  your  village  street,  the  village 
marshal  will  apprehend  you  and  the  village  justice  of 
the  peace  will  fine  you.  The  skillful  use  of  firearms 
may  be  an  admirable  accomplishment,  but  the  con- 
sensus of  public  opinion  in  our  families,  in  our  neigh- 
borhoods, in  our  cities,  in  our  states,  is  that  the  fewer 
guns  there  are,  the  safer  it  is.  Indeed,  our  social  sense 
is  so  much  against  guns  that  if  you  are  caught  carrying 
one  without  a  special  permit  the  authorities  will  con- 
sider you  a  questionable  character. 

But  without  further  arguing  that — it  has  been 
threshed  out  quite  fully  on  both  sides — the  way  to 
determine  what  form  our  "universal  training"  should 
take  is  to  ascertain  in  what  particulars  our  people  most 
need  to  be  trained.  That  we  all  need  to  be  trained  in 
the  use  of  our  faculties  goes  without  saying;  and  we 
have  the  schools  for  that.  That  we  need  to  be  trained 
in  respect  for  law  is  also  agreed ;  and  we  have  public 
opinion  and  the  laws  for  that. 

But  there  are  other  needs  for  training  which  most 
people  are  always  talking  about,  but  which  they  sel- 

220 


UNIVERSAL  TRAINING — YES,  FOR   USEFULNESS 

dom  consider  as  proper  subjects  for  "universal 
training." 

We  Americans  are  too  individualistic.  That  is  a 
rather  smooth  and  inoffensive  way  of  saying  we  arc 
selfish.  The  selfish  man  is  always  an  individualist. 
If  the  individualist  isn't  always  personally  selfish,  the 
effect  of  his  attitude  is  the  same. 

We  need  universal  training  in  teamwork.  That  is 
one  of  the  arguments  the  militarists  put  forth,  that 
military  training  teaches  teamwork.  True.  But  any 
work  which  engages  large  numbers  of  men  in  a  com- 
mon object  will  train  them  in  teamwork.  Militarism 
is  teamwork  with  a  destructive  object.  Isn't  it  possible 
to  get  the  same  degree,  yes,  even  a  higher  degree  of 
teamwork  with  a  constructive  object? 

It  would  be  a  splendid  thing  if  young  men  could 
be  drafted  into  the  public  service  for  a  year,  for 
discipline  in  serving  the  general  good — "soldiers  of 
the  common  good,"  is  a  phrase  someone  used.  Service 
for  someone  beside  ourselves  is  the  most  broadening 
experience  we  can  have.  It  surrounds  our  natural 
individualism  with  a  wide  circle  of  "otherism."  When 
a  man  lives  only  for  himself,  thinks  only  of  himself, 
he  is  in  danger  of  human  dry-rot.  So,  then,  imagine 
that  we  had  a  system  of  conscription  by  which  young 
men  should  be  drafted  for  a  year  of  training  and 
service. 

Their  training  would  consist  in  all  the  things  a 
young  man  ought  to  know.  The  authorities  had  to 
do  all  that  when  they  called  the  army  in  1917,  but 
they  had  not  time  to  do  it  thoroughly.  They  were 
calling  those  young  men  for  another  purpose  than  to 
make  them  more  valua])le  to  their  country.  But  under 
real  "universal  training"  for  constructive  national 
service,  these  young  fellows,  taken  at  an  age  when  they 
can  either  be  bent  for  life  or  straightened  up  for  life, 
would  be  trained  to  be  fine  bodies.  And  then  they 
would  be  trained  to  be  fine,  alert,  steadv  minds.  And 
then  they  would  be  trained  to  ])c.  useful,  willing  serv- 
ants of  society  at  large. 

The  nation  is  suffering  from  a  house  famine.  Sup- 
pose we  had  an  army  of  500,000  or  a  million  men  who 
could  do  for  the  homeless  of  the  United  .States  what 

221 


FORD    IDEALS 

small  detachments  of  our  army  are  doing  for  the 
homeless  of  France  and  Belgium. 

Sometimes  the  health  of  the  nation  suffers,  and 
thousands  of  deaths  and  measureless  sorrow  could  be 
prevented  if  only  we  had  an  army  of  public  servants 
who  could  go  in  and  do  the  things  necessary  to  halt 
the  plague  and  abolish  it  from  the  stricken  section 
forever.  Most  of  the  work  of  this  kind  that  is  being 
done  now  is  dependent  on  the  volunteers  of  science 
and  the  volunteers  of  humanitarian  sympathy.  Why 
could  it  not  be  done  by  conscripts  of  the  nation  whose 
conscription  would  be  a  noble  and  ennobling  initiation 
into  the  greatness  of  public  service? 

We  leave  for  greed  and  private  interest  to  do  many 
of  the  things  which  we  ought  to  do  for  ourselves  as  a 
collective  interest.  If  we  did  them  we  should  not  only 
have,  as  a  nation,  the  profit  of  them  when  accom- 
plished, but  we  should  also  have  the  training  and  ex- 
perience of  having  performed  a  constructive  act  as  a 
public  service. 

More  than  that,  we  need  "universal  training"  in 
economic  facts.  The  over-reaching  ambitions  of  spec- 
ulative capital  as  well  as  the  unreasonable  demands  of 
irresponsible  labor  are  both  due  to  ignorance  of  the 
economic  basis  of  business.  Nobody  can  get  more 
out  of  a  business  than  the  business  can  produce,  and 
yet  nearly  everybody  thinks  he  can.  Speculative  cap- 
ital wants  more;  labor  wants  more;  the  source  of  raw 
material  wants  more  and  the  purchasing  public  wants 
more — and  the  poor  business  that  tries  to  satisfy  them 
all  succeeds  in  satisfying  none,  and  in  the  end  destroys 
itself. 

The  family  has  to  be  trained  that  it  cannot  live 
beyond  its  father's  income,  and  presently  even  the 
children  know  that ;  but  the  public  never  seems  to  learn 
that  it  cannot  have  more  than  it  produces. 

If  we  had  "universal  training"  in  the  facts  of  eco- 
nomic balances,  we  should  keep  our  affairs  on  a  more 
even  keel  most  of  the  time.  There  would  be  none  of 
this  utterly  false  belief  that  only  a  state  of  war  can 
keep  the  balance  between  the  various  parties  to  pro- 
duction. That  theory  is  nothing  but  militarism  with- 
out a  uniform;  it  is  introducing  into  economic  life  all 


UNIVERSAL  TRAINING — YES,  FOR  USEFULNESS 

the  destructive  fallacies  which  make  war  the  colossal 
stupidity  which  it  is. 

There  are  dangerous  interests  in  our  country  which 
are  very  active  in  trying  to  propagate  a  "universal 
training"  in  economic  untruth.  The  world  has  just 
been  treated  to  the  spectacle  of  one  whole  nation  prac- 
tically ruined  so  far  as  its  economic  organization  is 
concerned,  because  the  forces  of  unrest  and  ignorance 
had  actually  succeeded  in  getting  a  real  "universal 
training"  of  the  people  in  wrong  notions  of  things. 
No  doubt  the  people  were  sincere,  but  even  sincerity 
does  not  change  the  facts.  And  in  this  country  the 
same  danger  threatens,  that  the  people  will  be  trained 
in  a  theory  of  economic  life  which  is  false,  and  which 
they  may  not  discover  to  be  false  until  they  work  it 
and  suffer  ruin  from  it — unless,  of  course,  a  better 
"universal  training"  intervenes  to  prevent  that. 

Our  whole  "Americanization"  work  ought  to  go 
deeper  than  proficiency  in  English,  knowledge  of  our 
governmental  structure  and  loyalty  to  the  Flag;  it 
ought  to  deal  with  the  deep  foundations  of  moral,  so- 
cial and  economic  soundness.  Well-grounded  in  the 
nature-of-things-as-they-are,  the  American  people 
would  be  so  "universally  trained"  in  the  truth  that 
they  would  be  defended  against  the  attractive  half- 
truths  which  are  current  evervwhere  today. 


223 


Strike  Profiteers  Are  the 
Cause  of  Strikes 


WHEN  two  unreasonable  parties  refuse  to  reach 
an  agreement,  their  quarrel  should  be  confined 
to  themselves  alone;  it  should  be  prevented  from  do- 
ing harm  to  others.  But  when  two  reasonable  parties 
cannot  come  to  agreement,  it  is  time  to  look  behind 
the  scenes  for  a  third  party  whose  interest  is  to  keep 
them  quarrelling.  This  applies  to  labor  disputes  as 
well  as  other  disputes.  Sometimes  both  employer  and 
employe  are  unreasonable  and  do  not  seek  agreement 
but  conquest :  in  which  case  their  unreasonableness 
ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  cause  inconvenience  or 
loss  to  the  public.  But  there  have  been  occasions 
when  both  employers  and  employes  were  reasonable 
enough  to  be  able  to  reach  an  agreement,  and  were 
prevented  by  hidden  influences. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  for  a  single  minute  that 
though  a  strike  may  mean  loss  of  money,  time  and 
peace  of  mind  to  all  directly  concerned — to  working- 
man,  manufacturer  and  public — it  does  not  necessarily 
mean  the  same  loss  to  everyone. 

There  are  interests  that  make  money  out  of  certain 
kinds  of  strikes.  If  these  strikes  did  not  pay  some- 
body, there  would  be  fewer  of  them. 

An  analysis  of  the  matter  shows  that  there  are 
three  kinds  of  industrial  disputes. 

First,  there  is  the  justifiable  strike — the  strike  for 
those  proper  conditions  and  just  rewards  to  which 
the  workingman  is  in  all  fairness  entitled. 

The  pity  is  that  men  should  be  compelled  to  use 
the  strike  to  get  what  is  theirs  by  right.  No  American 
ought  to  be  compelled  to  strike  for  his  rights.  He 
ought  to  receive  them  naturally,  easily,  as  a  matter  of 
course. 

These  justifiable  strikes  are  usually  the  employer's 
fault.     Some  employers  are  not  fit  for  their  job.    Em- 

224 


STRIKE    PROFITEERS    ARE    THE    CAUSE    OF    STRIKES 

ployment  of  men,  direction  of  their  energies,  arrang- 
ing that  their  reward  shall  be  in  honest  ratio  to  their 
production  and  to  the  prosperity  of  the  business — that 
is  no  small  job. 

An  employer  may  be  unfit  for  his  job,  just  as  a 
man  at  the  lathe  may  be  incompetent.  The  lathe  man 
gets  into  trouble  with  his  work,  and  so  does  the  in- 
competent employer  with  his.  Justifiable  strikes  are 
a  sign  that  the  boss  needs  another  job — one  that  he 
can  handle. 

The  unfit  employer  causes  more  trouble  than  the 
unfit  employe.  You  can  change  the  latter  to  a  more 
suitable  job.  But  the  former  must  usually  be  left  to 
the  law  of  compensation. 

The  justified  strike,  then,  is  one  that  need  never 
have  been  called  if  the  employer  had  done  his  work 
as  he  ought. 

But  there  is  a  second  kind  of  strike- — the  strike 
which  may  be  named  The  Strike  With  a  Concealed 
Design.  In  this  kind  of  strike  the  workingmen  are 
made  the  tools  of  some  hidden  manipulator  who  seeks 
his  own  ends  through  them.  Whoever  this  manipu- 
lator may  be,  his  designs  will  not  stand  the  light. 

To  illustrate  this  kind  of  strike :  Here  is  a  great 
industry  whose  success  is  due  to  having  met  a  public 
need,  to  its  efficient  and  skillful  methods  of  produc- 
tion, and  to  its  known  record  for  just  treatment  of 
its  workingmen.  Such  an  industry  presents  a  great 
temptation  to  speculators.  If  they  can  only  gain  con- 
trol of  it  they  can  reap  rich  benefit  from  all  the 
honest  effort  that  has  been  put  into  it.  They  can  de- 
stroy its  beneficiary  wage  and  profit-sharing,  squeeze 
every  last  dollar  out  of  the  public,  the  product  and 
the  workingmen,  and  reduce  it  to  the  plight  of  other 
business  concerns  which  are  run  on  these  low  prin- 
ciples. 

Their  motive  may  be  the  personal  greed  of  the 
speculator,  or  they  may  wish  to  change  the  policy  of  a 
business  whose  example  is  embarrassing  to  employers 
who  do  not  want  to  do  what  is  right  by  their  employes. 

But  how  gain  control  ? — that  is  the  speculator's 
problem.  One  of  the  simplest  wavs  is  The  Strike 
\\'illi  a  Concealed  Design. 


FORD    IDEALS 

It  works  this  way :  The  industry  to  be  attacked 
cannot  be  touched  from  within,  because  its  men  have 
no  reason  to  strike.  So  another  method  is  adopted. 
The  business  in  question  may  keep  many  outside 
shops  busy  supplying  it  with  parts  or  material.  If 
these  outside  shops  can  be  tied  up  then  the  great  in- 
dustry may  be  crippled,  and  that  is  what  the  specu- 
lators want. 

So  strikes  are  fomented  in  the  outside  industries. 
Every  attempt  is  made  to  curtail  the  factory's  source 
of  supplies.  It  is  a  simple  game  when  once  under- 
stood, and  the  public  has  no  idea  how  often  it  is 
played. 

Now,  if  the  workingmen  of  the  outside  shops  knew 
what  the  game  is,  they  would  refuse  to  play  it,  but 
they  don't  know ;  they  serve  as  the  tools  of  designing 
capitalists  without  knowing  it.  There  is  one  point, 
however,  that  ought  to  rouse  the  suspicions  of  work- 
ingmen engaged  in  this  kind  of  strike.  If  the  strike 
cannot  get  itself  settled  no  matter  what  either  side 
offers  to  do,  it  is  almost  positive  proof  that  there  is  a 
third  party,  a  hidden  hand,  interested  in  having  the 
strike  continue.  That  hidden  influence  does  not  want 
a  settlement  on  any  terms.  Its  whole  profit  is  in  the 
trouble  and  in  the  continuance  of  the  trouble. 

If  such  a  strike  is  won  by  the  strikers,  is  the  lot 
of  the  workingmen  improved?  After  throwing  the 
industry  into  the  hands  of  outside  speculators,  are 
the  workmen  given  any  better  treatment  or  wages? 

Who  is  most  likely  to  work  with  the  workingman 
along  lines  of  progress  and  prosperity :  the  manufac- 
turer whose  home  is  where  his  plant  is,  whose  reputa- 
tion among  his  neighbors  is  dear  to  him,  whose  inter- 
est in  his  employes  is  born  of  acquaintance  and  daily 
fellowship? — or  the  outsider,  the  speculator,  the 
profiteer,  who  does  not  know  his  men  from  iron 
spikes  and  whose  only  interest  in  the  industry  is  to 
squeeze  dollars  out  of  it  until  it  is  dry? 

That  is  the  pity  of  some  strikes  which  linger  on  and 
on  after  settlements  are  possible — the  deluded  strikers 
are  fighting  the  battles  of  cunning  speculators  and 
do  not  know  it. 

Then  there  is  a  third  kind  of  strike — the  strike  that 

226 


STRIKE    PROFITEERS    ARE    THE    CAUSE    OF    STRIKES 

is  provoked  by  the  Money  Interests  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  Labor  a  bad  name.  The  American  Work- 
man has  always  had  a  reputation  for  sound  judg- 
ment. He  has  not  allowed  himself  to  be  led  away 
by  every  shouter  who  promised  to  create  the  millen- 
nium out  of  thin  air.  He  has  had  a  mind  of  his  own 
and  has  used  it.  He  has  always  recognized  the  funda- 
mental truth  that  the  absence  of  reason  was  never 
made  good  by  the  presence  of  violence. 

In  this  way  the  American  Workingman  has  won 
a  certain  prestige  with  his  own  people  and  throughout 
the  world.  Public  Opinion  has  been  inclined  to  re- 
gard with  respect  his  opinions  and  desires. 

But  there  seems  to  be  a  determined  effort  now 
being  made  to  fasten  the  Bolshevik  stain  on  Amer- 
ican Labor,  by  inciting  it  to  such  impossible  attitudes 
and  such  wholly  unheard  of  actions  as  shall  change 
public  sentiment  from  respect  to  criticism. 

It  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  higher  disorderly 
elements  that  they  should  employ  the  lower  disorderly 
elements  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  morale  and 
reputation  of  the  American  Workingman.  All  the  dis- 
order does  not  originate  with  the  workingman.  Much 
of  it  comes  from  higher  up. 

The  American  Workingman's  most  valued  asset 
is  his  reputation  for  cool-headed,  balanced  judgment 
and  respect  for  law  and  order.  If  he  loses  that,  what 
does  he  gain? 

But — and  here  is  the  point — if  he  does  lose  that, 
the  powers  that  would  exploit  him  and  reduce  him 
to  the  lowest  form  of  wage-slavery,  would  be  the  gain- 
ers. Losing  his  good  name,  the  American  Working- 
man  loses  all ;  his  enemies  are  the  gainers. 

It  is  time  for  us  to  ask  some  cjuestions :  If  the 
workingman  does  not  make  money  out  of  strikes,  who 
does? 

It  is  time  for  every  striker  to  ask  himself:  Who 
stand  to  make  money  out  of  this  strike?  ^\'ho  will  get 
the  chief  benefit  if  we  l)reak  down  this  industry? 
Whose  game  are  we  playing,  anvwa\-  ? 

The  man  who  makes  profit  out  of  strikes,  be  he 
billionaire  manijnilator  or  self-scrking  labor  leader,  is 
a  menace  to  the  nation,  a  traitor  to  the  well-being  of 

227 


FORD    IDEALS 

humanity,  and  the  personal  assailant  of  every  work- 
ingman. 

In  the  second  and  third  kinds  of  disorder  which 
have  been  described  here,  the  concealed  speculator 
orders  the  strike;  the  dishonest  labor  leader  plans  it; 
the  rowdy  element  fans  it  into  violence — and  the  hon- 
est misled  workingman  pays  for  it,  and  continues  to 
pay ! 

Anyone  who  knows  the  American  Workingman  as 
he  really  and  naturally  is,  must  be  convinced  that  he 
does  not  want  to  be  the  tool  of  evil  designers  who 
are  not  his  friends,  and  who  cannot  build  prosperity. 
Some  people  make  prosperity ;  other  people  sap  it ;  the 
latter  devitalize  and  destroy  it. 

There  ought  to  be  high  wages  everywhere — as  high 
as  the  business  will  warrant ;  and  any  business  that  is 
serving  the  world  and  is  efficiently  managed  will  war- 
rant it.  There  ought  to  be  profit-sharing  too,  that 
each  man  may  be  a  partner  and  not  merely  a  "hand." 

But  it  is  not  the  boss  who  makes  high  wages ;  it  is 
the  men.  If  the  boss  stands  in  the  way  of  men  getting 
what  they  earn,  he  is  not  fit  to  be  boss.  The  day  has 
come  when  such  a  man  will  not  be  able  to  keep  work- 
men in  his  shop. 

Once  the  boss  picked  out  his  men.  Now  men  are 
able  to  pick  out  their  boss. 

Big  wages  are  not  philanthropy.  Big  wages  arc 
plain  business  rights. 

The  speculators  who  arc  always  ready  to  stir  up 
labor  trouble  are  not  interested  in  high  wages.  They 
are  usually  interested  in  hindering  the  man  who  pays 
high  wages.  They  want  to  hurt  him.  to  drive  him  out 
of  business.  The  American  Workingman  will  not 
play  that  game,  once  he  understands  it. 


228 


Unrest  Is  Not  Disorder 


PEOPLE  whose  business  is  to  talk  and  write  are 
sometimes  more  active  with  their  imaginations 
than  with  their  eyes;  their  dramatic  instinct  sends 
them  off  on  fancies  which  do  not  exist,  and  they  ad- 
mire the  role  of  prophet  more  than  that  of  reporter ; 
but  men  who  can  see,  see  straight,  and  tell  exactly  what 
they  see — men  who  are,  that  is  to  say,  superlatively 
good  reporters  of  plain  facts — are  very  useful  citizens 
today,  and  if  there  were  more  of  them  there  would  be 
fewer  hectic  headlines  in  our  papers  and  fewer  fever- 
ish flashes  in  our  thoughts  of  the  times. 

It  is  a  fact  which  needs  special  emphasis  just  now 
that  there  is  less  actual  disorder  in  the  country  than 
there  is  said  to  be. 

Great  outbreaks  are  heralded  which  do  not  occur. 
Great  dislocations  of  business  are  threatened  which 
never  take  place.  Great  strikes  are  said  to  be  "going 
on,"  whose  strength  had  failed  weeks  ago  and  the 
major  part  of  whose  supporters  had  returned  to  work. 

There  is  far  less  disorder  than  is  reported,  as  the 
most  casual  investigation  shows.  Everybody  seems 
to  be  talking  of  this  or  that  outbreak,  but  it  is  always 
somewhere  else ;  and  everybody,  while  he  talks,  goes 
on  about  his  work.  "Everybody"  is  said  to  be  off  on 
a  strike  crusade,  and  yet  a  survey  of  the  situation 
shows  that  pretty  nearly  everybody  came  down  to 
work  this  morning  and  intends  to  keep  coming. 

The  fact  is,  there  is  less  disorder  than  loircst.  A 
vital  distinction  exists  here.  Unrest  indicates  one 
thing,  disorder  another.  And  this  is  not  said  in  pallia- 
tion of  the  situation  at  all,  but  only  in  the  inierest  of 
strict  analysis. 

Disorder  would  mean  (hat  our  pe()j)lc  had  some- 
how lost  their  heads,  that  all  the  important  parties  to 
our  common  American  life  had  developed  a  sudden 
fateful  stupidity  which  markcMJ  thr  riul  of  our  fa- 
mous American  common  sense.     Disorder  indicates  a 


FORD    IDEALS 

brain-storm,  the  utter  collapse  of  intelligent  resource, 
the  breakdown  of  every  sense  of  responsibility,  the 
destruction  of  all  devices  developed  by  the  energy  and 
efficiency  of  our  civilization.  Disorder  simply  means 
the  disintegration  of  the  times. 

But  unrest  may  mean  something  far  different.  It 
may  mean  only  that  our  people  are  sensing  a  new  pres- 
sure, glimpsing  a  new  light,  are  conscious  of  a  new 
coniing  time. 

Unrest  may  be  a  herald,  as  well  as  a  warning. 
Unrest  may  signify  the  revival  of  new  life  in  the 
people.  It  has  all  kinds  of  hopeful  significance  once 
it  is  hopefully  viewed  and  used. 

Not  that  one  would  intimate  for  a  moment  that 
as  long  as  it  is  only  unrest  we  see,  and  not  disorder, 
we  need  not  worry  much.  That  is  not  the  point  at  all. 
The  very  fact  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  are 
even  feeling  the  stirrings  of  unrest  as  they  contemplate 
their  social  status  is  far  more  important  than  would 
be  the  fact  that  another  people,  not  so  intelligent  and 
well-supplied  and  sensible,  were  engaged  in  widespread 
disorder. 

Now,  no  more  foolish  way  could  be  taken  with 
this  fact  of  unrest  than  to  imagine  that  we  shall  be 
doing  quite  enough  to  satisfy  its  immediate  causes  and 
allow  root  causes  to  remain. 

There  is  a  short-sighted  prudence  among  the  em- 
ploying classes  of  the  United  States  which  may  be 
colloquially  stated  thus :  "Let's  feed  them  a  sop,  not 
enough  to  make  them  greedy  for  more,  just  enough 
to  satisfy  them,  and  let  us  do  this  after  they  have 
had  to  fight  for  it  so  that  it  may  seem  to  come  hard. 
It  will  never  do  to  admit  that  we  could  have  done  this 
for  them  before,  but  would  not." 

Such  an  attitude  can  have  only  one  basis — the  be- 
lief that  there  is  a  master-class  and  a  servant-class 
among  us,  and  that  the  only  way  the  master-class  can 
keep  its  mastery  is  by  dealing  shrewdly  with  the 
servant-class,  as  ignorant  dependents. 

Let  us  be  rid  at  once  of  that  survival  of  feudalism 
among  us. 

Let  us  get  rid  at  once  of  the  idea  that  unrest  can 
be  thoroughly  dealt  with  by  a  system  of  hand-outs, 


UNREST    IS    NOT   DISORDER 


on  the  theory  that  the  dog  never  bites  while  he  is 
eating. 

Let  us  wipe  out  of  American  business  phraseology 
such  phrases  as  "keeping  them  contented,"  as  if  they 
were  children,  and  "three  squares  a  day  keeps  the 
Bolshevist  away,"  as  if  our  people  were  mere  animals. 

The  whole  philosophy  is  degrading  to  anyone  who 
believes  it  or  who  acts  upon  it.  It  is  not  degrading 
to  the  American  workingman,  because  he  does  not 
agree  with  it  for  one  instant. 

As  long  as  we  adhere  to  the  program  of  piece-meal 
settlements,  granting  a  concession  here  and  doing  a 
favor  there,  "for  the  sake  of  keeping  the  working- 
class  quiet,"  we  are  simply  dealing  in  postponements, 
not  in  settlements.  Now,  we  know  what  the  demands 
and  program  of  the  disorderly  elements  are — they  are 
unreasonable  and  destructive  in  the  extreme ;  and  it 
would  make  absolutely  no  difference  whether  those 
demands  were  granted,  or  whether  they  were  with- 
held and  the  destructive  program  carried  out — the 
result  would  be  exactly  the  same.  To  grant  a  demand 
which  no  equitable  system  can  carry  is  just  as  fatal 
as  to  refuse  it  and  have  industry  destroyed  by  violence. 
Industry  would  be  destroyed  either  way.  There  are 
some  things  which  cannot  be  done  no  matter  how  much 
we  may  wish  to  do  them.  We  may  wish  to  feed  1,000 
people,  but  if  there  is  only  one  bushel  of  potatoes  it 
cannot  be  done.  The  demand  of  the  disorderly  ele- 
ment is  practically  that  everybody  be  requested  to 
raise  fewer  potatoes,  and  yet  that  everybody  be  given 
more  potatoes.  One  end  of  the  program  kills  the 
other.  It  is  all  unreason  and  confusion.  If  every- 
body does  less  work  and  everybody  gets  more  of  the 
product  of  work,  how  long  can  it  last?  And  where 
will  the  unproduced  and  unearned  part  come  from? 

But  the  meanings  of  unrest  nuist  not  be  confused 
with  this.  The  unreasonable  demands  of  the  disorderly 
forces  are  simply  the  counterpart  of  the  unreasonable 
attitude  of  those  who  believe  that  a  safe  and  work- 
able system  can  be  arrived  at  by  a  master-class  hand- 
ing out  favors  to  a  servant-class. 

Unrest  may  mean  something  far  more  intelligent, 
more  constructive  and  more  just. 


FORD    IDEALS 

It  would  surprise  many  employers  of  labor  to 
learn  that  the  unrest  among  their  men  does  not  pri- 
marily concern  money.  That  is  to  say,  the  central 
thought  of  the  major  part  of  our  citizens  who  are 
becoming  concerned  about  our  social  and  industrial 
problems  is  not  "more  money  at  any  cost,"  but 
"justice." 

Certainly  justice  will  mean  more  money  in  many 
places.  Certainly  no  industry  can  be  said  to  be  justi- 
fying itself  which  survives  at  the  expense  of  its  em- 
ployes and  thrives  upon  their  losses. 

But  there  is  this  to  say :  if  justice  were  done  and 
it  so  happened  that  justice  did  not  mean  more  money, 
there  would  be  a  great  wave  of  real,  not  temporary, 
contentment  sweep  over  the  working  world. 

If  it  were  shown  and  proved  that  wages  as  they 
exist  everywhere  today  were  strictly  just  and  equit- 
able, forming  an  unimpeachable  balance  between  pro- 
ducer and  consumer,  there  would  be  instant  satisfac- 
tion with  the  wage  scale. 

Why?  Because  what  men  miss  most  is  not  the 
extra  money  in  their  pay  envelope,  but  the  sense  of 
justice  in  their  hearts.  They  want  to  live  in  a  world 
that  is  playing  square  with  them.  They  want  to  be 
at  peace  with  their  fellow-men.  True,  they  want  pros- 
perity, but  they  do  not  want  it  at  the  cost  of  injustice 
to  others. 

The  hardest  burden  of  poverty  is  not  its  depriva- 
tion, but  its  bitter  reflection  that  the  other  side  of 
poverty  is  the  injustice  of  successful  greed. 

So,  while  the  disorderly  elements  want  nothing  so 
much  as  to  ravage  the  firm's  bank  account,  the  true 
rank  and  file  of  the  laboring  world  wants  a  system  of 
labor  and  reward  that  is  equitable  and  just  in  itself, 
no  matter  what  its  figures  may  show.  It  wants  a 
world  founded  on  rectitude.  It  wants  to  know  that 
the  square  deal  rules.  It  wants  to  know  that  it  is 
neither  being  taken  advantage  of,  nor  is  taking  ad- 
vantage of  any  other. 

It  is  a  phase  of  the  human  spirit  we  are  dealing 
with,  and  whenever  we  fail  to  see  that,  we  run  afoul 
of  elements  which  are  most  vital  to  social  and  in- 
dustrial stability. 


UNREST   IS    NOT   DISORDER 

Here  is  where  all  conferences  and  committees  fail. 
They  meet  each  other,  one  to  force  the  other  forward 
and  one  to  force  the  other  back.  They  are  combatants 
from  the  start.  They  talk  about  dollars.  One  side 
tries  to  get  the  other  side's  dollars  away  from  it  by 
disputing  that  side's  ownership  of  the  money ;  equally 
disputatious  and  material-minded  they  simply  shut 
out  any  high  considerations.  And  the  result  is  what 
anyone  might  have  foreseen. 

We  must  get  a  higher  meeting  ground.  We  have 
got  to  get  together  to  consider  what  complete  industrial 
justice  is,  regardless  of  which  side  will  be  most  af- 
fected by  that  justice  when  it  is  arrived  at.  We  must 
keep  it  high  and  above  all  our  petty  selfishness  and 
ambitions.  We  must,  indeed,  have  but  one  ambition 
— the  noble  ambition  to  be  one  of  the  creators  of  in- 
dustrial justice. 

And  if  we  find  that  justice  means  adjustment  of 
working  conditions,  of  wages,  the  admission  of  work- 
ingmen  to  profit-sharing  and  to  a  part  in  the  manage- 
ment as  it  affects  them,  then  we  must  consider  who 
will  contribute  the  difference  made  by  changed  hours 
and  wages,  and  we  must  consider  how  these  changes 
can  safely  be  put  into  effect  without  disturbing  the 
business  in  its  standing. 

All  this  can  he  arrived  at  with  great  friendliness 
and  common  sense  between  employers  and  employes 
if  they  only  seek  the  higher  unity  and  not  their  own 
limited  interests.  And  if  so  be  an  employer,  having 
been  once  a  workingman  himself,  sees  the  need  of 
adjustments  and  makes  them  before  his  men  ask  him, 
so  much  the  better — his  act  means  a  great  increase  in 
confidence  and  a  new  feeling  that  the  world  still  has 
a  square  deal  left  in  it. 

This  is  the  way  to  find  a  settlement  that  will  stand. 
Not  a  contract  which  may  be  broken,  but  an  agree- 
ment of  minds  and  hearts  in  a  new  social  industrial- 
ism whicii  will  endure  simply  because  it  is  founded  on 
conviction  and  not  on  limited  interest. 


Employment  Is  Greater  Than 
"Employer"  or  "Employe" 


IN  THE  discussion  which  goes  on  about  "capital" 
and  "labor"  we  forget  something.  We  leave  out 
the  very  thing  that  it  is  all  about.  We  talk  a  great 
deal  about  employers,  and  a  great  deal  about  employes, 
and  say  practically  nothing  about  the  industry  which 
brings  them  both  together.  We  hear  a  great  deal 
about  the  differences  between  these  two  groups,  but 
we  almost  entirely  overlook  the  foundation  that  is 
holding  both  of  them  up  while  they  dispute.  If  the 
business  they  are  arguing  about  should  suddenly  fall 
to  pieces  and  disappear,  the  argument  would  be  over ; 
both  parties  would  find  themselves  floundering  in  the 
midst  of  chaos. 

So  it  may  be  a  worth-while  contribution  to  the 
general  subject  if  we  just  make  room  somewhere  be- 
tween "employer"  and  "employe"  for  that  very  im- 
portant element,  Employment. 

Let  us  begin  as  near  the  beginning  as  we  can. 
Everyone^ — -except  the  hermit  of  the  woods  who  lives 
on  berries,  roots  and  game,  whose  business  in  life  be- 
gins and  ends  with  himself — lives  by  serving  some- 
one else. 

He  can  dig,  or  plant,  or  build,  or  teach,  or  lay  out 
plans,  or  heal,  or  amuse,  or  give  general  help  where 
labor  is  required.  And  those  who  need  his  services 
in  digging  or  planting  or  building  or  teaching  or  heal- 
ing or  amusing,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  go  to  him  for 
that  service  and  he  lives  by  it.  That  is  his  business. 
The  more  widely  known  he  becomes  for  what  he  can 
do,  and  the  more  customary  it  becomes  with  the  peo- 
ple to  call  upon  him.  the  more  solidly  is  his  business 
established.  That  is,  the  more  accurately  he  can  speak 
of  his  "trade"  as  distinct  from  himself. 

That  business,  that  established  custom  by  which 
people  come  to  him  for  his  services  and  by  which  he 

234 


EMPLOYMENT    IS    GREATER    THAN    "EMPLOYER"    OR    EMPLOYE*^ 

renders  them,  becomes  his  foundation  in  life,  just  as 
the  farm  becomes  the  farmer's  foundation.  His  busi- 
ness has  a  Hfe  of  its  own.  It  is  known  by  its  name. 
It  has  a  reputation.  It  can  be  injured.  It  can  be 
killed.  It  is  a  created  entity  which  is  almost  human 
in  its  response  to  demands  or  conditions. 

Now,  it  makes  no  difference  to  the  principle  in- 
volved whether  that  business  is  a  cobbling  shop  em- 
ploying only  its  owner,  or  a  great  factory  employing 
40,000  men.  The  business  is  the  medium  through 
which  the  livelihood  of  its  members  comes ;  it  is  the 
medium  through  which  their  service  is  extended  to 
the  world  in  exchange  for  a  livelihood  from  the  world ; 
and  any  disturbance  of  the  medium  results  inevitably 
in  serious  hindrance  to  the  service  both  ways. 

This  idea  is,  of  course,  a  very  simple  one,  and  that 
is  the  reason  why  it  is  so  difficult  to  make  clear.  The 
simplest,  most  obvious  facts  .  are  hardest  to  value 
properly,  because  they  are  so  easy  to  undervalue.  They 
are  the  small  bolts  and  nuts  of  thought,  apparently 
trivial  in  themselves,  but  their  loss  is  important  enough 
to  cripple  the  whole  machine. 

If  there  were  ten  of  us  living  off  a  farm  of  100 
acres,  the  fundamental  economic  fact  for  us  would  be 
that  farm.  We  should  be  just  plain  fools  to  stand 
around  and  argue  while  the  farm  went  to  waste.  If 
we  did  that,  and  the  farm  did  go  to  wrack  and  ruin, 
the  argument  would  be  over ;  we  simply  should  have 
argued  ourselves  into  the  lack  of  anything  worth 
arguing  about. 

A  shop  or  a  business  is  exactly  the  same.  It  is  the 
living  of  those  engaged  in  it.  It  is  the  place  where  we 
win  our  food  and  raiment  and  shelter.  There  may  be 
something  wrong  with  the  relations  that  exist  between 
individuals  there ;  there  may  be  grave  differences  in 
the  degree  of  justice  with  which  the  distribution  of 
rewards  is  effected;  still  it  is  true  that  the  business  is 
the  ground  we  all  depend  on,  and  it  is  worth  a  much 
larger  part  of  our  consideration  than  many  seem  dis- 
posed to  give  it. 

Ruin  a  business,  disorganize  it,  scatter  it  abroad, 
and  you  will  have  no  further  worry  about   "capital" 

235 


FORD    IDEALS 

or  "labor" — it  will  then  become  a  question  of  saving 
our  economic  lives. 

Now,  the  nucleus  of  a  business  may  be  an  idea 
That  is,  an  inventor  or  a  thoughtful  workman  works 
out  a  new  and  better  way  to  serve  some  established 
human  need;  the  idea  commends  itself,  and  people 
want  to  avail  themselves  of  it.  In  this  way  a  single 
individual  may  prove,  through  his  idea  or  discovery, 
the  nucleus  of  a  business. 

But  the  creation  of  the  body  and  bulk  of  that  busi- 
ness is  shared  by  everyone  who  has  anything  to  do 
with  it.  No  manufacturer  can  say  "I"  built  this  busi- 
ness if  he  has  required  the  help  of  thousands  of  men 
in  building  it.  It  is  a  joint  production.  Everyone  em- 
ployed in  it  has  contributed  something  to  it.  By  work- 
ing and  producing  they  make  it  possible  for  the  pur- 
chasing world  to  keep  coming  to  that  business  for  the 
type  of  service  it  provides,  and  thus  they  help  estab- 
lish a  custom,  a  trade,  a  habit  which  supplies  them 
with  a  livelihood.  All  this  has  a  certain  practical 
bearing  on  the  discussions  which  are  prevalent  today 
and  which  sometimes  threaten  to  damage  the  good 
points  along  with  the  bad. 

When  two  men  are  in  mid-lake  in  a  boat,  their 
common  interest,  no  matter  what  their  personal  dif- 
ferences may  be,  is  in  the  integrity  of  that  boat.  They 
may  differ  and  argue  and  contend  as  much  as  they 
please  regarding  what  seat  each  ought  to  occupy,  but 
if  they  break  the  boat  or  swamp  it,  the  seat  question 
ceases  to  exist — and  possibly  the  men  too. 

It  will  not  make  much  difference  how  we  decide 
to  divide  the  golden  e^g,  if  during  the  squabble  we 
destroy  the  goose  that  lays  it. 

"What  ought  the  employer  to  pay?"  and  "What 
ought  the  employe  to  receive?"  are  minor  questions, 
the  basic  question  being,  "What  can  the  business 
stand  ?" 

Certainly  no  business  can  stand  an  outgo  that  ex- 
ceeds its  income.  When  you  pump  water  out  of  the 
well  at  a  faster  rate  than  the  water  runs  in,  your  well 
goes  dry.  And  when  the  well  runs  dry,  those  who 
depend  on  it  go  thirsty.  And  if,  perchance,  they 
imagine  they  can  pump  one  well  dry  and  then  jump 

236 


feMPLOVMfeNT   IS   GREATER   THAN   ''EMI'LOYeft"  OR   EMPLOYE" 

to  some  other  well,  it  is  only  a  matter  of  time  before 
the  same  shortsighted  policy  will  dry  up  all  the  wells. 

Just  now,  when  there  is  such  a  widespread  insistent 
demand  for  more  justly  divided  rewards,  it  must  be 
recognized  that  there  are  limits.  The  business  itself 
sets  the  limits.  You  cannot  distribute  $150,000  out 
of  a  business  that  only  brings  in  $100,000. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  men  saying  that  the  "em- 
ployer" ought  to  do  thus-and-so,  the  expression  ought 
to  be  changed  to,  "the  business  ought  to  be  so  stimu- 
lated and  managed  that  it  can  do  thus-and-so."  Be 
cause,  only  the  business  does  it.  Certainly  the  em- 
ployer cannot  do  it  if  the  business  will  not  warrant  it. 
But  if  the  business  will  warrant  it  and  the  employer 
will  not  do  it,  there  is  a  way  to  secure  it  without  en- 
dangering the  business. 

As  a  rule  the  business  means  the  livelihood  of  too 
many  men,  to  be  tampered  with.  Nothing  could  be 
more  criminal  in  the  economic  realm  than  the  as- 
sassination of  a  business  to  which  large  numbers  of 
men  have  given  their  labors  and  to  which  they  have 
learned  to  look  as  their  field  of  usefulness  in  the 
world  and  their  source  of  livelihood.  It  must  be  said, 
however,  that  this  form  of  assassination  has  been  more 
frequently  practiced  by  speculative  capitalists  than  by 
workingmert 

So  that  in  making  the  adjustments  which  a  new 
industrial  order  will  require,  it  will  be  better  if  the 
employer  stops  looking  at  the  employes  as  he  asks 
himself,  "How  little  can  I  get  them  to  take?"  and  it 
will  be  better  if  the  employe  takes  his  eyes  off  the 
employer  as  he  asks,  "How  much  can  I  force  him  to 
give?" 

It  will  be  infinitely  better  if  both  turn  their  eyes 
upon  the  business  and  ask,  "How  can  this  industry  be 
made  safe  and  profitable,  so  that  it  will  be  able  to 
provide  a  sure  and  comfortable  living  for  all  of  us?" 

If  the  two  groups  would  take  their  eyes  and  minds 
oft'  each  other  and  turn  them  to  the  industry  as  the 
only  possible  means  of  obtaining  what  both  of  them 
want,  there  would  be  an  advantage  gained. 

First,  there  would  be  the  advantage  of  forgetting 
personalities.      It    is    when    we   talk   about    labor   and 

237 


FORD    IDEALS 


capital  that  we  find  class  lines  appearing,  and  class 
prejudices,  and  class  antipathies.  The  two  opposed 
groups  look  too  much  at  each  other  as  men,  and 
imagine  too  many  wrong  things  against  each  other. 

Second,  there  would  be  the  advantage  of  both 
groups  converging  and  centering  on  one  common  in- 
terest; and  there  is  no  question  whatever  that  the  so- 
lution of  our  problem  will  never  be  the  find  of  any 
one  group,  but  the  creative  construction  of  both  groups 
working  together.  When  we  cease  to  talk  about  "capi- 
tal" and  "labor,"  and  begin  to  talk  about  Industry, 
then  both  capital  and  labor  are  talking  about  the  same 
thing — that  on  which  they  both  equally  depend  for 
their  living. 

Let  workmen  stop  imagining  this  and  that  about 
the  boss  and  let  bosses  stop  imagining  this  and  that 
about  the  workmen ;  let  both  of  them  get  back  to  nor- 
mal thoughts  by  thinking  more  of  the  job. 

The  job  is  the  place  where  capital  and  labor,  pro- 
ducer and  consumer,  financial  and  industrial  and  pub- 
lic interests  meet  on  common  ground.  All  that  any  of 
them  will  ever  get,  they  will  have  to  get  out  of  the 
job. 

And  it  may  well  be  that,  thinking  less  of  employer 
and  employe,  which  are  terms  of  division  today,  and 
more  of  Employment,  which  is  a  term  of  unity,  we 
may  reach  a  good  understanding,  a  fuller  justice  and 
a  deeper  contentment  much  earlier  than  we  have 
expected. 


2.18 


Profit  and  Cost  in  a 
Day's  Work 

How  much  profit  does  a  workman  reap  from  his 
day's  labor?  How  much  ought  he  to  reap?  Does 
a  "good  living"  come  under  the  head  of  profit,  or  is 
it  properly  a  part  of  the  cost  of  producing  a  day's 
labor  ?  How  far  can  human  energies  be  measured  and 
human  values  standardized  in  order  that  the  cost  of  a 
day's  labor  may  be  standardized? 

Questions  like  these  occur  in  one  period  or  another 
of  every  man's  thought  about  a  system  of  economics 
which  shall  be  more  solidly  based  than  any  which 
serves  us  now. 

But  a  more  than  academic  interest  attaches  to 
these  questions,  for  they  are  the  real,  even  if  unspoken, 
basis  for  much  of  the  irritation  and  confusion  which 
exists  in  the  industrial  world  today. 

The  workingman  is  beginning  to  understand  that 
he  is  in  business.  His  raw  material  is  human  energy. 
His  product  is  a  day's  work.  All  other  business  men 
seek  a  profit  above  cost  of  production,  why  should 
not  he? 

The  difficulty  thus  far  has  been  in  making  out  the 
cost  sheet.  How  much  does  it  cost  to  produce  a  day's 
work  ? — that  is  the  question  for  which  there  seems  to 
be  no  satisfactory  basic  answer. 

It  is  perhaps  possible  accurately  to  determine — 
albeit  with  considerable  interference  with  the  day's 
work  itself — how  much  energy  the  day's  work  takes 
out  of  a  man.  But  it  is  not  at  all  possible  accurately 
to  determine  how  much  it  will  require  to  put  back 
that  energy  into  him  against  the  next  day's  demands. 
Nor  is  it  possible  to  determine  how  much  of  that  ex- 
pended energy  you  will  never  be  able  to  put  back  at 
all — because  a  "sinking  fund"  for  the  replacement  of 
tlie  body  and  vital  strength  of  a  worker  has  never  been 
invented. 

239 


FORD    IDEALS 


It  is  possible,  however,  to  consider  these  latter 
problems  in  a  lump  and  provide  for  them  under  a  form 
of  old-age  pensions ;  but  even  so,  we  have  not  thus 
attended  to  the  question  of  profit  which  each  day's 
labor  ought  to  yield  in  order  to  take  care  of  all  of 
life's  overhead,  all  physical  losses,  and  the  inevitable 
deterioration  which  falls  upon  all  earthly  things. 

Moreover,  there  are  questions  having  to  do  with 
the  pre-productive  period,  which  would  have  to  be 
solved.  Here  is  the  man,  let  us  say,  ready  to  begin 
his  service  to  society  by  turning  out  days'  work 
throughout  his  life.  How  much  did  it  cost  to  rear  and 
educate  him  to  his  present  age  and  usefulness?  And 
how  can  that  be  figured  as  part  of  the  cost  of  the 
energy  he  puts  forth  as  he  works  today?  Now,  if  it 
were  the  case  of  a  machine,  you  would  know  what 
to  charge.  The  machine  cost  a  certain  sum ;  it  wears 
out  at  a  given  rate;  it  would  cost  such-and-such  an 
amount  to  replace.  It  is  a  simple  matter  to  figure  the 
actual  cost  of  the  machine  and  its  productive  work, 
and  add  the  profit. 

Can  we  do  that  with  men?  Rather,  can  men  do 
that  for  themselves,  so  that  selling  a  day's  work  they 
will  have  as  intelligent  an  idea  of  the  cost  of  that 
day's  work  and  the  profit  it  ought  to  bring  as  any 
manufacturer  ought  to  have  of  his  product? 

The  problem  becomes  more  complicated  when  you 
consider  the  man  in  all  his  aspects.  For  he  is  more 
than  a  workman  who  spends  a  certain  number  of  hours 
at  his  work  in  the  shop  every  day. 

If  he  were  only  himself,  the  cost  of  his  mainte- 
nance and  the  profit  he  ought  to  have  would  be  a  simple 
matter.  But  he  is  more  than  himself.  He  is  a  citizen, 
contributing  by  his  cultivation  and  interest  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  city.  He  is  probably  a  householder,  living 
under  conditions  which  represent  more  than  mere 
maintenance,  in  that  they  represent  the  graces  of  so- 
cial life.  More  than  that,  he  is  probably  a  father  with 
a  more  or  less  numerous  progeny,  all  of  whom  must 
subsist  and  be  reared  to  usefulness  on  what  he  is  able 
to  earn. 

Now,  it  is  obvious  that  to  regard  the  man  alone. 


240 


PROFIT    AND    COST    IN    A    DAY  S    WORK 

refusing  to  reckon  with  the  home  and  the  family  in 
the  background,  is  to  arrive  at  a  series  of  facts  which 
are  misleading  and  which  alone  can  never  suffice  even 
for  a  temporary  solution  of  the  questions  that  con- 
cern us. 

How  are  you  going  to  figure  the  contribution  of 
the  home  to  the  day's  work  of  the  man?  You  are 
paying  the  man  for  his  work,  but  how  much  does  that 
work  owe  to  his  home  ?  How  much  to  his  position  as 
a  citizen?  How  much  to  his  position  as  the  pro- 
vider of  a  family?  The  man  does  the  work  in  the 
shop,  but  his  wife  does  the  work  of  the  home,  and 
the  shop  must  pay  them  both ;  on  what  system  of 
figuring  is  the  home  going  to  find  its  place  on  the  cost 
sheets  of  the  day's  work?  It  finds  its  place  there 
already  in  a  sort  of  haphazard  way.  If  a  man  cannot 
support  himself,  his  wife,  his  children,  his  habitation, 
his  position  in  society — why,  he  doesn't  stay  at  the 
job,  that's  all.  It  isn't  a  matter  of  cost  and  profit  to 
him ;  it  is  the  matter  of  a  "living." 

Is  a  man's  own  livelihood  the  "cost"?  And  is  his 
ability  to  have  a  home  and  a  family  the  "profit"  ? 

Is  the  profit  on  a  day's  work  to  be  computed  on  a 
cash  basis  only,  measured  by  the  amount  a  man  has 
left  over  after  his  own  and  family's  wants  are  all 
supplied? 

Is  the  livelihood  of  five  or  six  persons  beside  those 
of  the  actual  worker  to  be  charged  up  to  "profit"  ? 

Or,  are  all  these  relationships  to  be  considered 
strictly  under  the  head  of  "cost."  and  the  profit  to  be 
computed  entirely  outside  of  them?  That  is,  after 
having  supported  himself  and  family,  clothed  them, 
housed  them,  educated  them,  given  them  the  privil- 
eges incident  to  their  standard  of  living,  ought  there 
to  be  provision  made  for  still  something  more  in  the 
way  of  savings  profit,  and  all  ])roperly  chargeable  to 
the  day's  work?  These  are  (|Ucstions  which  call  for 
accurate  observation  and  computation. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  one  item  connected  with  our 
economic  life  that  would  surprise  us  more  than  a 
knowledge  of  just  what  excess  burdens  the  day's  work 
actually  carries. 

241 


FORD    IDEALS 

It  carries  all  the  worker's  obligations  outside  the 
shop ;  it  carries  all  that  is  necessary  in  the  way  of 
service  and  management  inside  the  shop.  The  day's 
productive  work  is  the  most  valuable  mine  of  wealth 
that  has  ever  been  opened. 

Certainly  it  cannot  be  made  to  carry  less  than  all 
the  worker's  outside  obligations.  And  certainly  it 
ought  to  be  made  to  take  care  of  the  worker's  sunset 
days  when  labor  is  no  longer  possible  to  him,  and 
should  be  no  longer  necessary.  And  if  it  is  made  to 
do  even  these,  industry  will  have  to  be  adjusted  to  a 
schedule  of  production,  distribution  and  reward  which 
will  stop  the  leaks  toward  the  pockets  of  men  who  do 
not  assist  production  in  any  way,  and  turn  all  streams 
for  the  benefit  of  those  who  do.  In  order  to  create 
a  system  which  shall  be  as  independent  of  the  good- 
will of  benevolent  employers  as  of  the  ill-will  of  selfish 
ones,  we  shall  have  to  find  a  basis  in  the  actual  facts 
of  life  itself. 

It  costs  just  as  much  physical  strength  to  turn 
out  a  day's  work  when  wheat  is  $1  a  bushel  as  when 
wheat  is  $2.50  a  bushel.  Eggs  may  be  12  cents  a 
dozen  or  90  cents  a  dozen — it  makes  no  difference  in 
the  units  of  energy  a  man  uses  in  a  productive  day's 
work. 

One  would  think  that  the  real  basis  of  value  would 
be  the  cost  of  transmuting  human  energy  into  articles 
of  trade  and  commerce.  But  no ;  that  most  honest 
of  all  human  activities  is  made  subject  to  the  specu- 
lative shrewdness  of  men  who  can  produce  false  short- 
ages of  food  and  other  commodities,  and  thus  excite 
anxiety  of  demand  in  society. 

It  is  not  in  industry  that  the  trouble  lies,  but  in 
those  regions  beyond,  where  men  lie  in  wait  to  seize  the 
fruits  of  industry  and  create  false  scarcities  for  the 
sake  of  arousing  an  anxious  demand  for  things  which, 
normally,  are  and  ought  to  be  accessible  to  all  who 
engage  in  daily  productive  pursuits. 

We  must  begin  with  the  land ;  we  must  continue 
with  the  day's  labor;  and  we  must  keep  so  close,  so 
jealously  close  to  both  these  fundamentals  that  we 
shall  be  suspicious  and   fearful  of   all   that   robs  the 

242 


PROFIT  AND  COST   IN   A    DAY  S   WORK 

land  of  men,  and  robs  labor  of  its  primal  importance 
in  material  life. 

We  shall  think  out,  and  try  out,  and  establish 
more  enduring  economic  systems  as  we  go  on  about 
our  work,  than  we  shall  ever  be  able  to  do  sitting  idle 
with  our  heads  in  our  hands  trying  to  "think"  a  new 
world  system  out  of  our  brains. 

The  day's  work  is  the  hub  around  which  the  whole 
wheel  of  earth-life  swings.  It  must  be  kept  central, 
both  in  our  thinking  and  our  action.  Any  system  that 
shunts  the  day's  work  off  to  one  side  as  unimportant, 
is  riding  to  a  fall. 


Who  Is  the  Producer? 


WHO  is  the  Producer?  It  is  really  an  important 
question  in  these  days  of  revised  thinking,  be- 
cause there  is  growing  up  a  new  class-conscious  aris- 
tocracy which  calls  itself  "the  producers,"  and  is  very 
exclusive  of  everyone  else.  It  is,  of  course,  a  good 
sign  that  emphasis  is  being  placed  on  production  and 
that  a  new  appreciation  has  come  for  the  producer; 
and  perhaps  it  is  natural  that  a  kind  of  class  pride 
should  grow  up  which  would  limit  the  right  to  wear 
that  honorable  name ;  but  all  this  makes  it  the  more 
necessary  that  we  should  be  clear  in  our  minds  as  to 
who  the  Producer  really  is. 

The  most  common  description  of  the  Producer 
would  lead  us  to  believe  that  he  is  the  man  from  whose 
hands  comes  the  finished  product.  We  are  easily  de- 
ceived on  this  point.  This  man,  we  say,  makes  horse- 
shoes. He  produces  something  useful.  He  is  thus 
a  valuable  member  of  society.  We  can  see  his  work, 
we  can  see  him  perform  it,  we  can  see  how  it  serves 
the  immediate  needs  of  the  community.  Therefore, 
we  have  no  hesitancy  in  awarding  him  the  title  of 
Producer. 

But  behind  that  man  are  others  whom  we  do  not 
sec.  There  is  the  miner  who  dug  out  the  iron  ore. 
There  is  the  mule-driver  who  transported  the  ore  to 
the  mine  shaft.  There  is  the  engineer  who  hoisted  it 
to  the  top.  There  are  the  men  who  handled  it  in  the 
smelter.  There  are  the  other  men  who  sailed  the  ships 
that  carried  it  to  the  steel  mills.  Then  in  the  steel 
mills  it  passed  through  the  hands  of  many  men  who 
transformed  it  into  steel ;  and  there  were  railroad  men 
and  truckmen  who  carried  it  to  the  place  where  ma- 
terial was  needed.  P'inally  there  was  the  blacksmith 
who  with  his  brawny  arm  and  practiced  eye  shaped  it 
into  the  article  that  was  needed — a  rod,  a  brace,  or  a 
horseshoe. 

244 


WHO   IS   THE   PRODUCER? 

When  you  actually  trace  any  article  of  use  through 
the  numerous  hands  that  worked  upon  it,  and  then 
attempt  to  divide  the  price  of  the  article  among  those 
various  men,  you  not  only  get  an  idea  of  the  vast  co- 
operation which  production  involves,  but  also  how 
([uantity  production  is  the  only  method  by  which  a  low 
price  to  the  purchaser  and  an  adequate  wage  to  the 
producer  can  be  maintained. 

During  this  process  of  tracing,  you  would  also 
come  upon  another  fact  which  is  often  overlooked ; 
you  would  become  aware  of  a  very  considerable  body 
of  workers  whose  hands  did  not  directly  touch  the 
product  at  all,  but  whose  whole  work  was  in  serving 
the  Producers  during  the  time  they  were  actually  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  production.  We  are  not  now 
speaking  of  the  various  forms  of  service  rendered  to 
the  Producers  outside  the  shop,  but  that  service  which 
is  rendered  them  inside  the  shop. 

Take  the  shop  sweepers,  for  example.  They  never 
touch  the  product  of  the  shop.  To  the  careless  eye 
they  are  not  producing  anything  at  all.  They  are 
mere  "extras,"  so  to  speak.  Many  would  indignantly 
deny  them  the  title  of  Producers. 

Yet  they  serve  the  processes  of  production  in  an 
indispensable  way.  Sweeping  the  shop  has  a  direct 
hearing  on  the  production  of  the  special  article  which 
tlie  shop  exists  to  make,  h^or  example,  an  accumula- 
tion of  waste  would  hinder  production  in  two  ways; 
lirst,  the  waste  itself  would  get  in  the  workers'  way; 
second,  to  get  it  out  of  his  way  the  worker  would  have 
to  leave  his  job  and  go  sweeping. 

Now,  when  the  sweeper  goes  through  his  appointed 
section  of  floor  space  with  his  broom,  he  is  clearing 
the  way  for  the  worker,  he  is  allowing  the  workei 
to  continue  straight  on  with  his  job,  unhindered. 

Again,  the  sweeper  serves  the  worker  in  a  still 
more  indirect  yet  important  way:  cleanliness  of  the 
shop  brings  sanitary  benefits  with  it,  and  so  the 
sweeper  serves  the  worker's  health,  and  through  it 
production,  by  cutting  down  lost  time  due  to  illness. 

Perhaps  the  most  subtle  service  the  sweeper  ren- 
ders is  a  psychological  one.     A  clean  shop  has  an  in- 

245 


FORD    IDEALS 


fluence  on  the  men.  They  become  more  clean-cut  in 
their  own  work.  Wherever  you  see  a  shop  cluttered 
up  with  a  mass  of  waste,  or  with  material  dumped 
around  anywhere  in  disorderly  fashion,  you  will  find 
that  the  workmen's  minds  become  cluttered  too ;  they 
partake  of  the  general  disorderliness.  Now,  the 
sweeper  has  worked  for  weeks  and  months  and  has 
not  touched  a  single  process  of  what  we  call  produc- 
tion, and  yet  he  has  served  the  Producer  and  aided 
production. 

If  the  man  whom  we  call  the  Producer  had  been 
compelled  to  stop  and  do  his  own  sweeping,  he  would 
have  drawn  the  same  rate  of  pay  for  handling  a  broom 
as  was  given  him  for  the  skilled  use  of  a  tool.  It 
would  have  been  a  waste  of  skill.  The  sweeper  re- 
lieved him  of  that  necessity,  and  so  made  it  possible 
to  keep  the  mechanical  skill  where  it  was  most  needed. 

And  because  the  sweeper  is  thus  a  contributor  to 
production  through  rendering  service  to  the  more  di- 
rect Producer,  it  is  believed  that  he  is  entitled  to  a 
wage  that  recognizes  his  value.  That  is  why  the  min- 
imum wage,  which  always  ought  to  be  high  enough 
to  support  a  very  creditable  standard  of  living,  should 
include  the  sweepers  also,  or  any  other  similar  workers 
whose  efforts  contribute  to  the  general  work  of  pro- 
duction. 

Are  we  going  to  deny  the  name  of  Producer  to 
those  whose  services  are  a  part  of  the  immediate  pro- 
ducer's services? 

That  is  just  what  is  sometimes  done.  There  is  a 
sort  of  an  aristocracy  of  skill  growing  up.  There  is 
an  exclusiveness  which  would  shut  out  the  contributors 
to  production  from  the  status  and  rewards  of  Pro- 
ducers. It  is  rather  strange  to  see  these  division? 
arise,  and  to  see  how  the  urge  of  human  pride  always 
makes  for  separateness  among  men.  There  are  others, 
of  course,  beside  the  sweepers,  who  serve  the  immedi- 
ate Producers  of  articles  of  use.  The  man  who  plans 
the  work,  who  makes  it  possible  for  the  Producer  to 
begin  the  job  at  once  instead  of  waiting  to  lav  it  out 
and  plan  it  ahead — he,  too,  has  his  part  in  production. 

Then,  before  any  of  these  came  upon  the  scene  at 

246 


WHO    IS    THE    PRODUCER.'' 


all,  there  is  the  man  who  had  vision  enough  and  faith 
enough  to  win  the  necessary  means  to  start  the  work 
going  in  the  first  place :  the  man  whose  credit  or 
whose  idea  was  good  enough  to  secure  capital  and 
machinery  and  a  place  to  work.  Surely  it  will  not 
be  denied  that  he,  too,  had  his  part  in  Production — 
that  he  served  Production  and  the  Producer,  too. 

The  difficulty  has  been  in  the  past  very  similar  to 
that  which  confronts  us  now,  namely,  a  tendency  on 
the  part  of  one  group  to  minimize  the  importance  of 
the  other  group,  as  if  that  were  the  only  way  to  se- 
cure its  own  importance. 

Our  enormous  and  insistent  demand  for  the  fin- 
ished product  has,  in  these  days,  given  an  exaggerated 
prominence  to  the  man  who  does  the  finishing.  The 
last  man  to  handle  the  article  is  the  first  man  the  pub- 
lic sees,  and  thus  he  is  the  one  who  is  most  often 
given  the  title  of  Producer. 

The  man  who  "turns  it  out"  is  the  man  whom  mod- 
ern opinion  acclaims  as  the  real  creator. 

And  yet  it  must  be  clear  to  all  that  this  man  could 
not  "turn  it  out"  unless  a  whole  series  of  processes 
had  produced  it  to  his  hand  almost  readv  to  be  "turned 
out." 

When  all  is  said  and  done,  it  is  the  organization 
that  produces,  and  no  individual  worker.  And  by 
"organization"  is  meant  not  only  the  specific  shop 
which  makes  the  specific  article,  but  the  whole  in- 
dustrial process,  from  those  which  deal  with  the  raw 
materials  of  the  earth,  to  those  that  give  the  finishing 
touches  which  prepare  the  worked  material  for  the 
market  and  for  use. 

They  are  all  part  of  the  plan.  It  may  be  tiiat  some 
of  the  processes  could  be  shortened  up  a  little;  it  may 
be  that  profiteers  ])usb  in  here  and  there  to  collect  an 
unwarranted  tax  on  the  completed  article  as  it  passes 
along  the  channels  of  commerce ;  but  aside  from  these, 
which  can  easily  be  remedied,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
actual  shaping  of  the  article  occupies  a  place  about 
midway  in  the  whole  process  of  Production.  It  is  not 
the  whole.  It  is  indispensable,  of  cotn-se ;  but  it  is 
not  warranted  in  assuming  a  lordly  dominance  over  all 
the  others. 


FORD    IDEALS 

Certainly  there  is  no  place  in  a  just  and  well-reg- 
ulated world  for  any  labor  that  does  not  in  some  meas- 
ure contribute  to  Production.  This  is  not  to  take'  a 
sordid  view  of  life,  but  only  to  insist  on  usefulness  in 
the  things  which  we  support.  Every  man  who  eats  and 
wears  clothes  and  enjoys  creature  comforts,  does  so 
at  the  expense  of  someone  else's  labor.  Now,  he  ought 
to  yield  an  adequately  useful  return  for  what  he  re- 
ceives— that  is  the  principle. 


All  Are  Members  of  the 
Consuming  Class 


A  CORRESPONDENT  suggests  that  in  classifying 
society  into  groups,  such  as  the  Producing,  the 
Consuming  and  the  Public  groups,  or  the  Capital,  the 
Labor  and  the  Public  groups,  there  should  have  been 
added  the  Government  group,  thus  placing  the  struc- 
ture on  four  solid  legs,  instead  of  leaving  it  the  "three- 
legged  stool"  of  recent  popular  expression. 

The  suggestion  illustrates  the  fundamental  falsity 
of  dividing  society  at  all,  for  it  is  an  undivided  organ- 
ism. If  we  set  it  otT  into  classes  and  interests,  we  do 
so  simply  as  an  aid  to  our  thinking,  as  children  first 
use  blocks  to  learn  arithmetic ;  we  never  imply  that 
society  is  really  thus  divided ;  we  never  imply  that 
life  is  such  a  hard  and  fast  matter  that  every  man 
is  shut  up  into  one  caste  or  class. 

That  is  where  class-consciousness  usually  fails  as 
a  motive,  and  that  is  why  the  propagandists  of  a 
class-conscious  strife  are  doomed  to  failure — you  can- 
not cage  an  individual  in  any  one  class.  Even  while 
you  are  tagging  him,  he  eludes  you  and  glides  into  an- 
other class,  if  only  for  an  hour.  In  a  free  country  like 
ours,  a  man  usually  does — at  least  he  always  may — 
belong  to  all  classes  at  once,  except  perhaps  artificial 
and  unwholesome  classes  like  that  which  we  call  "the 
leisure  class."  To  belong  to  the  "leisure  class"  simply 
means  that  down  in  the  mine  and  at  the  forge  and  in 
the  shop  there  are  men  working  for  themselves  and  for 
idlers  whom  they  never  saw  ;  it  is  to  be  a  sponge,  a 
parasite,  a  sign  of  economic  disease. 

There  is  one  class  in  which  none  of  us  escapes 
membership,  and  that  is  the  Consuming  class.  P)y  the 
law  of  nature  we  are  all  consumers.  It  means  our 
very  life.  Rich  or  poor,  learned  or  ignorant,  it  does 
not  matter — every  living  organism  consumes  ilic  ma- 
terial of  life,  and  for  us  this  meruis  mosllv   food   for 


FORD    IDEALS 

the  body  and  the  material  necessities  of  residence  on 
the  earth. 

Every  man,  be  he  the  greatest  producer  ever 
known,  is  a  consumer  the  first  thing  in  the  morning 
when  he  sits  down  at  his  breakfast  table.  Whether 
he  produced  what  he  consumes,  or  whether  someone 
else  produced  it,  does  not  matter — sitting  at  that  table 
and  eating,  he  has  joined  the  Consuming  class.  The 
total  produce  of  the  world  is  a  little  less  because  he 
sat  there. 

And  then  he  goes  to  his  work.  He  enters  the  shop 
and  takes  up  his  task,  and  by  that  act  he  has  passed 
into  the  Producing  group.  No  jolt  and  no  jar  attended 
the  transition,  no  change  in  his  fundamental  interests 
occurred,  he  is  not  on  one  side  of  the  fence  while  he 
is  eating  his  breakfast  and  on  the  other  as  he  plies  his 
job — he  is  just  a  human  being  trying  to  support  him- 
self and  dependents  in  a  world  maze. 

Membership  in  the  Consuming  class  is  compulsory 
if  life  is  to  go  on,  but  evidently  membership  in  the 
Producing  class  is  not,  for  there  are  some — a  very  few 
comparatively — who  go  on  consuming  all  day  long, 
week  in  and  week  out,  during  a  whole  lifetime,  with- 
out ever  putting  back  a  single  valuable  contribution 
into  the  general  supply.  "They  are  living  on  their 
money,"  we  say.  But  they  are  not.  They  are  living 
on  the  grain  which  other  men  raised,  the  clothing  which 
other  men  spun,  the  commodities  which  other  men 
made — and  their  "money"  is  one  of  the  modern 
fetishes  by  which  they  are  enabled  to  do  this.  Money 
is  always  a  sign  of  production,  but  its  possession  is  not. 

But  returning  to  the  normal  man  who  has  no  de- 
sire to  escape  his  duty,  and  who  is  willing  to  replace 
by  production  the  stuff  which  he  takes  for  consump- 
tion, what  is  his  relation  to  these  two  conditions?  The 
fomenters  of  labor  strife  say  that  he  should  be  a 
"bull"  when  it  is  a  question  of  how  much  he  shall  be 
paid  for  production,  and  a  "bear"  when  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  what  he  shall  pay  for  what  he  consumes.  In 
other  words,  make  the  loaf  of  bread  cost  more  to  bake, 
but  sell  it  for  less  because  the  man  who  was  highly 
paid  for  baking  it  will  presently  come  around  the  front 
door  and  buy  it  for  his  family. 

250 


ALX  ARE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  CONSUMING  CLASS 

This,  of  course,  would  be  a  very  favorable  arrange- 
ment for  the  baker,  if  it  could  be  kept  up ;  but  un- 
fortunately for  that  dream,  there  is  an  inviolable  re- 
lation between  the  cost  of  consumption  and  the  cost 
of  production ;  even  in  the  physical  body,  when  re- 
pair and  replacement  cease  to  equal  waste  and  use, 
old  age  comes  and  death  is  not  far.  Decrepitude  and 
collapse  come  to  business  from  the  same  cause. 

There  is,  doubtless,  a  difference  in  the  interests  of 
the  individual  as  Producer  and  '.hat  same  individual 
as  Consumer,  but  the  difference  merges  into  the  same 
interest  at  last,  namely,  to  gain  enough  as  Producer 
to  meet  the  demands  made  upon  him  as  Consumer. 

Some  would-be  guides  talk  as  if  all  this  could  be 
easily  arranged  if  the  Producer  took  what  he  pro- 
duced and  let  it  go  at  that.  The  matter  is  complicated 
by  another  class  which  comes  into  existence  between 
the  production  and  the  consumption.  The  producer 
is  not  buying  of  himself  as  producer,  but  of  someone 
else  who  has  acquired  his  product.  This  gives  room 
for  a  mixture  of  motives — to  get  as  much  as  he  can 
as  producer  and  give  as  little  as  he  can  as  consumer. 

This  double  attitude  is  assisted  by  the  man's  belief 
that  he  is  dealing  with  two  sets  of  persons  whose  in- 
terests seem  opposed  to  his — his  employer,  who  he 
thinks  is  trying  to  get  out  of  him  more  labor  than  the 
wage  is  worth ;  and  the  merchant  or  trader,  who  he 
thinks  is  trying  to  get  out  of  him  more  money  than 
the  article  is  worth. 

The  man  doesn't  see  that — banish  human  greed 
from  the  equation — he  is  dealing  only  with  himself 
after  all,  and  that  if  he  robs  commodities  at  one  end 
of  the  process,  they  rob  him  at  the  other ;  and  so 
equality  is  established,  though  in  a  very  unsatisfactory 
sort  of  way. 

Now,  there  are  advisers  who  insist  that  the  way  out 
of  this  condition  is  for  the  Producer-Consumer  to  add 
to  his  "class  membership"  and  become  Trader,  too. 
For  that  is  all  that  the  abolition  of  the  commercial 
class  could  mean.  But  as  very  few  men  could  subsist 
on  the  connnodity  which  they  produce  (the  commoditv 
usually  being  only  a  part   in   some  larger  process  of 


FORD    IDEALS 


production),  and  would  have  to  stop  producing  in  or- 
der to  hawk  their  product  in  the  market  and  gain  the 
wherewithal  to  procure  a  subsistence,  the  process 
might  end  practically  in  the  same  place  as  the  present 
one  does — but  probably  it  would  end  in  a  much  lower 
degree  of  efficiency  and  in  a  much  lower  state  of  gen- 
eral comfort. 

In  our  capacity  as  workers  we  are  interested  in 
just  rates  of  reward;  in  our  capacity  as  consumers 
we  are  interested  in  just  rates  of  exchange;  in  our 
public  capacity  we  are  interested  in  the  general  wel- 
fare, not  of  ourselves  alone,  but  of  all  men. 

So,  when  our  correspondent  suggests  that  we  add 
the  Government  group,  it  means  just  this :  we  add  to 
all  our  other  "class  memberships,"  a  new  member- 
ship which  carries  power  and  authority  with  it. 

The  Government  is  not  a  group  of  men  who  con- 
trol a  group  of  the  Public  and  a  group  of  Producers 
and  a  group  of  Consumers ;  the  Government  is  the 
Public,  the  Producers  and  the  Consumers  united  to 
produce  a  political  life  which  shall  be  the  safeguard 
of  all  their  rights  and  their  just  interests. 

Perhaps  the  time  has  come  for  Government  to  con- 
sider taking  over  the  control  of  economic  conduct  as 
well  as  those  other  phases  of  conduct  which  are  indi- 
cated in  existing  laws.  Certainly  a  Government  that 
has  power  to  say  what  shall  be  the  standard  quart  or 
bushel,  should  also  have  power  to  say  what  shall  be 
the  standard  day  of  work  and  the  standard  rate  of 
reward. 

The  world  is  now  moving  around  in  a  dazed  sort 
of  way  simply  because  some  extremely  simple  ques- 
tions have  not  been  answered — questions  relating  to 
the  cost  of  a  day's  work  to  the  man  who  gives  it,  and 
the  rate  of  reward  he  ought  to  have  to  put  him  on 
an  equality  with  other  men  who  also  are  rewarded. 

There  is  natural  wealth  enough,  there  is  human 
energy  enough ;  one  is  also  persuaded  that  there  could 
be  found  enough  human  good  will,  if  mankind  only 
knew  what  to  do.  The  race  is  waiting  for  someone 
to  show  it  the  simple  way  out,  that  all  interests  may 
be  brought  into  harmony,  and  the  friction  of  unjust 
conflict  abolished. 


252 


Every  Man  Needs  Elbow  Room 


WHEN  a  man  deals  in  theories  it  is  very  easy  for 
him  to  exaggerate,  because  a  world  that  is  spun 
out  of  fancy  can  be  more  easily  rearranged  than  a 
world  of  throbbing,  driving  life.  Men  find  it  easy  to 
rear  Utopia  in  their  dreams,  and  make  changes  over- 
night that  would  dislocate  the  whole  human  race  if 
they  were  decreed  in  a  real  world.  But  when  we  are 
dealing  with  real  days  and  actual  conditions  we  find 
that  our  very  life  is  so  bound  up  in  the  conditions 
which  surround  us — as  the  life  of  the  body  inheres  in 
its  organs — that  sudden  and  total  changes,  which  are 
fortunately  impossible,  would  be  fatal,  if  they  were 
possible.  The  danger  of  our  dream-worlds  is  that 
they  influence  us  too  greatly  in  discounting  the  real 
world  in  which  we  live.  On  the  whole  it  is  not  a  bad 
world,  as  practically  everybody  will  admit.  It  is  not 
perfect  by  any  means ;  it  will  stand  much  retouching 
here  and  there,  much  adjustment  and  improvement ; 
but  on  the  whole  even  the  most  ordinary  mind  is  able 
to  see  that  what  we  have  is  infinitely  better  than  it 
might  be,  infinitely  better  than  some  of  the  systems 
which  are  now  being  proposed  by  men  whose  minds 
would  be  clearer  if  they  worked  for  their  living. 

Every  man  with  red  blood  in  his  veins  will  agree 
that  whatever  else  we  may  desire,  we  do  not  desire  a 
world  that  will  leave  no  elbow  room  for  individual 
initiative  and  ambition. 

No  man  would  wish  to  place  his  son  in  a  school 
where  the  lad  would  not  be  required  to  meet  things 
that  would  test  his  qualities  and  develop  his  powers. 
He  would  not  want  his  son  coddled.  He  would  want 
him  to  take  boy's  luck  with  the  rest  of  the  boys,  learn 
by  the  friction  generated  by  rubbing  against  hard 
tasks  and  other  people's  natures.  He  would  want  for 
his  son  such  a  discipline  as  would  render  him  a  self- 
reliant  man. 

And,  when  we  take  time  to  think  of  it,  that  is  just 


FORD    IDEALS 

the  kind  of  world  we  ask  for  ourselves.  We  don't 
want  to  be  supported  by  government,  clothed  by  legis- 
lature, and  apportioned  our  work  and  reward  by  com- 
missary ;  we  don't  ask  to  live  in  houses  furnished  us  by 
the  state,  fed  on  fixed  ration,  and  educated  according 
to  certain  schedules  fixed  for  the  various  classes  of 
society. 

What  the  normal  man  wants  is  a  free  field  and  no 
favorites,  a  chance  to  show  what  is  in  him,  and  take 
the  measure  of  success  and  reward  that  he  is  able  to 
win.  For  that  is  Freedom  in  the  economic  sense. 
Some  people  talk  as  if  economic  freedom  meant  lib- 
eration from  the  necessity  of  toil,  but  as  food  itself 
means  toil,  and  as  food  is  a  necessity,  that  view  is 
clearly  wrong.  Freedom  means  an  opportunity  to  go 
out  with  other  men,  working  with  them  in  co-opera- 
tion, and  alongside  them  in  friendly  competition,  so 
that  every  man  shall  have  the  chance  to  demonstrate 
his  ability. 

That  is  what  gives  life  its  zest,  and  any  social 
program  that  takes  that  zest  out  of  life  is  foredoomed 
to  failure  even  before  it  is  tried.  Indeed,  it  never 
will  be  tried,  because  the  healthy  zest  of  human  na- 
ture is  against  it  from  the  beginning. 

What  we  want  for  our  boys  is  what  we  ask  for 
ourselves — free  opportunity  on  the  field  of  endeavor, 
a  fair  chance  to  measure  powers  with  other  men,  and 
may  the  best  man  win ! 

Now,  when  we  have  tried  this  opportunity  for  a 
number  of  years  it  is  inevitable  that  we  settle  into  the 
classifications  which  our  abilities,  our  use  of  our  op- 
portunities, and  our  general  value  to  society,  fix  for 
us.  That  is  the  only  classification  possible.  Each  man 
eventually  finds  his  own  place.  He  finds  his  own 
work.  He  is  rewarded  according  to  the  contribution 
he  makes  to  the  general  welfare. 

There  is  nothing  arbitrary  about  it.  It  is  not  done 
by  legislation  nor  by  the  pressure  of  group  interests. 
It  is  purely  natural  in  its  operation.  Cotton  goes  into 
cloth  and  iron  goes  into  dredges ;  there  is  no  dis- 
crimination ;  there  is  only  classification  by  fitness. 

But  the  contest  of  life  leaves  a  certain  proportion 
of  human  beings  very  low  in  the  economic  scale,  and 

254 


EVERY    MAN    NEEDS    ELBOW    ROOM 

this  constitutes  the  largest  item  in  our  social  problem. 

This  residuum  near  the  bottom  has  heretofore 
been  waste  material  to  a  very  large  extent.  We  have 
been  just  as  w^asteful  of  men  as  we  have  of  certain 
materials.  For  generations  we  have  been  throwing 
away  what  we  called  the  "waste"  of  mines  and  the 
"rubbish"  and  "garbage"  of  cities.  But  we  have  now 
awakened  to  their  value  and  are  making  them  useful 
and  therefore  valuable.  In  the  same  way  we  have 
been  counting  certain  classes  of  unskilled  individuals 
as  waste.  Humanity's  scrap-heap  has  at  times  been 
very  large.  But  modern  industry  has  turned  all  this 
waste  humanity  to  new  and  increased  usefulness,  thus 
making  these  classes  of  men  more  valuable  to  them- 
selves and  society. 

It  was  not  so  much  a  matter  of  "man's  inhumanity 
to  man,"  as  it  was  society's  lack  of  managerial  ability 
to  use  the  naturally  less  useful  classes,  which  led  to 
the  sad  spectacle  of  "a  human  scrap-heap."  Modern 
industry  went  to  that  scrap-heap  and  found  good  use- 
ful stuff,  and  today  even  the  unskilled  man  can  feel 
that  he  is  playing  his  part  in  the  making  of  the  world. 
The  man  of  initiative,  ability,  and  energy  has  always 
been  able  to  take  care  of  himself.  He  has  asked  no 
favors  and  has  agitated  no  new  form  of  society.  The 
problem  has  always  been  the  other  man  who  must  be 
helped  to  help  himself. 

That  man  is  receiving  more  of  the  material  of 
self-help  today  than  at  any  time  in  human  history.  He 
counts  for  something.  He  is  necessary  to  the  work 
of  the  world.  Productive  processes  have  been  so 
standardized  that  his  steadiness  is  as  good  an  asset  as 
genius,  and  his  labor  as  prime  an  investment  as  capital. 

And  still  more  will  be  done  for  him.  He  has  not 
only  been  given  a  place  in  the  world;  he  will  be  given 
a  share  in  the  wealth  he  helps  to  create  over  and  above 
that  share  which  comes  to  him  as  wages.  He  will  par- 
ticipate in  the  "extras";  he  will  be  enabled  to  count 
his  connection  with  his  job  not  only  on  the  basis  of  the 
day's  wage,  but  of  the  year's  bonus  and  dividend.  All 
this  is  made  possible  not  by  a  soft  sentimentalism,  but 
by  new  methods  of   production  and  new  genius   for 


FORD    IDEALS 


management  which  have  given  value  to  the  work  of 
these  formerly  discounted  groups  of  men. 

There  is  a  theory  that  profit-sharing  is  imprac- 
ticable because  it  is  not  balanced  by  loss-sharing,  that 
a  full  partnership  between  capital  and  labor  would 
involve  a  sharing  of  the  risks  as  well  as  the  benefits. 

The  theory  is  faulty  at  several  points.  Whatever 
profit  a  business  shows  is  produced  by  labor  in  con- 
junction with  efficient  management,  and  labor  is  there- 
fore clearly  entitled  to  a  share.  Moreover,  the  losses, 
whether  caused  by  ill-management,  depression  or  other 
conditions  which  are  still  beyond  control,  are  certain 
to  be  shared  by  labor,  whether  it  will  or  no. 

But  why  expect  losses  at  all?  Why  should  a 
business  which  supplies  a  legitimate  need  of  the 
people,  ever  suffer  from  lack  of  work  at  a  profitable 
figure?  Eliminate  the  speculative  element,  contribute 
efficient  management,  give  honest  labor  on  an  honest 
product  at  an  honest  price,  and  you  have  established 
business  on  a  substantial  basis,  at  the  minimum  of 
risk. 

Labor  and  management  are  partners — if  both  be 
efficient,  the  results  are  as  certain  as  human  affairs 
can  be.  Management  furnishes  the  method,  labor 
furnishes  the  medium ;  both  together  spell  service ; 
service  is  the  basis  of  reward;  and  upon  the  basis  of 
honest  reward,  prosperity  is  built. 

With  capital  making  the  first  move  toward  fair- 
ness and  equality,  there  is  bound  to  be  a  receptive 
spirit  on  the  part  of  labor,  and  a  revision  of  some  of 
the  old  prejudices  and  misconceptions.  After  all,  we 
are  only  human — all  of  us ;  and  a  real  man  can  always 
sense  the  note  of  sincerity,  or  its  absence,  in  another's 
proffer  of  friendship. 

The  sincere  desire  of  the  manufacturer  to  be  just 
to  his  men  and  to  the  public  must  result  in  a  tide  of 
loyalty  rolling  in  to  meet,  augment  and  solidify  the 
new  spirit  which  is  coming  into  industrial  relations. 


256 


The  Need  of  Social  Blueprints 


ALMOST  anyone  you  may  chance  to  meet  will  tell 
,  you  that  "something  ought  to  be  done"  and  will 
assure  you  that  it  nuist  be  done  very  soon.  But  you 
will  travel  a  long  way  before  you  will  meet  anyone 
with  a  plan  that  has  a  single  point  of  practicability. 

Many  plans,  so-called,  are  not  plans  at  all ;  they 
are  pleasant  pictures  of  conditions  as  they  may  be 
after  all  the  planning,  all  the  preparatory  work  and 
all  the  constructive  labors  are  done.  A  plan  is  not  an 
oil-painting  of  a  complete  object ;  a  plan  indicates  the 
"how"  and  the  "where"  and  the  "what"  of  every  joist, 
joint  and  pillar.  You  cannot  build  a  house  from  a 
charming  photograph ;  you  will  need  a  blueprint. 

Every  thoughtful  man  has  an  idea  of  what  ought 
to  be ;  but  what  the  world  is  waiting  for  is  a  social 
and  economic  blueprint. 

There  is  something  deadly  exact  about  a  blue- 
print. It  is  not  a  speech ;  it  is  not  a  propaganda ;  it 
is  not  a  burst  of  enthusiasm;  it  is  a  simple  thing  of 
lines  and  signs  which  tells  you  what  to  do  and  just 
where  to  do  it.  It  speaks  of  only  one  quality — orderly 
work. 

Now,  this  is  why  good  intentions  are  of  so  little 
value  to  the  practical  solution  of  the  problems  that 
confront  us.  Good  intentions,  of  course,  are  very 
good — as  intentions.  And  doubtless  good  intentions 
must  exist  in  every  good  plan.  But  everyone  has  had 
enough  experience  with  well-meaning  people  to  know 
that  good  intentions  are  often  sterile. 

It  is  very  surprising  to  learn  how  nuich  of  the 
distrust  of  people  in  plans  for  the  advancement  of 
justice  in  human  relations  is  due  to  the  failure  of  so 
many  ill-planned  and  badlv  managed  good  intentions. 
Human  history  is  full  of  the  wreckage  of  high  and 
noble  intentions  for  social  good  and  human  better- 
ment, which  failed  simply  because  they  had  the  vi- 
sionary quality  without  the  creative  quality. 

257 


FORD    IDEALS 

And  one  result  of  this  is  the  almost  universal  as- 
sumption that  whatever  is  good,  generous,  just  and 
warmly  human,  is  prevented  by  those  very  qualities 
from,  being  practical.  There  is  an  unspoken  belief 
that  if  a  plan  is  to  be  practical  it  must  disregard  hu- 
manity to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  Consideration  of 
others  and  success  for  oneself  are  believed  to  be  in- 
compatible. 

Another  result  is  the  assumption  that  "creative 
work"  can  only  be  undertaken  in  the  realm  of  vision. 
We  speak  of  "creative  artists"  in  music,  painting  and 
the  other  arts.  We  thus  limit  the  creative  functions 
to  productions  that  may  be  hung  on  gallery  walls  or 
played  in  concert  halls,  or  otherwise  displayed  where 
idle  and  fastidious  people  gather  to  admire  each  other's 
show  of  "culture." 

But,  if  a  man  wants  a  field  for  real  vital  creative 
work,  let  him  come  where  he  is  dealing  with  higher 
laws  than  those  of  sound,  or  line  or  color;  let  him 
come  where  he  may  deal  with  the  very  laws  of  per- 
sonality and  society.  Creative  work  !  We  want  artists 
in  industrial  relationships.  We  want  masters  in  in- 
dustrial method,  both  from  the  standpoint  of  the  pro- 
ducer and  the  product.  We  want  those  who  can  mold 
the  political,  social,  industrial  and  moral  mass  into  a 
sound  and  shapely  whole. 

We  have  limited  the  creative  faculty  too  much  and 
have  used  it  for  too  trivial  ends.  We  want  men  who 
can  create  the  working  design  for  all  that  is  right  and 
good  and  desirable  in  our  life  together  here. 

Now,  it  is  pretty  clear  that  the  creative  plan,  when 
it  comes,  will  propose  surprisingly  little  that  is  new ; 
it  will  consist  largely  in  a  readjustment  of  the  old 
things. 

We  shall  not  outgrow  the  need  to  work.  Some 
people  are  talking  as  if  the  "good  time  coming"  is 
going  to  eliminate  labor  altogether.  Some  people  ap- 
pear to  think  that  the  only  thing  that  is  wrong  with 
our  present  system  is  that  people  have  to  work  for 
their  living. 

Well,  we  may  be  sure  on  one  point :  work  is  not 
what  ails  the  world.  The  world  would  be  infinitely 
worse  off  than  it  is,  both  physically  and  morally,  if  it 


THE    NEED    OF    SOCIAL    BLUEPRINTS 

were  not  for  work.  One  of  the  danger-spots  of  the 
present  time  is  that  so  many  men  are  trying  to  evade 
work  as  if  it  were  a  disease.  There  is  a  class  of  men 
who  regard  the  white  collar  as  a  sign  of  emancipation 
from  work.  An  idea  like  that,  if  true,  would  soon 
bring  the  white  collar  into  disgrace. 

There  are  too  many  men  dickering  in  real  estate 
and  not  enough  men  digging  in  it. 

There  are  too  many  agitators,  who  do  not  work 
at  all,  telling  these  groups  who  cannot  think  for  them- 
selves that  they  are  to  be  commiserated  because  they 
have  to  work. 

Think  of  it !  here  in  America,  the  one  country  in 
the  world  where  it  has  always  been  held  honorable 
that  a  man  should  work  with  his  hands — in  this  coun- 
try honest  work  is  sought  to  be  made  the  badge  of 
servility ! 

Say  what  you  will,  the  man  who  works  with  his 
hands  has  the  best  of  it — other  things  being  equal. 
And  what  we  all  want  in  this  country  is  that  the  work- 
ingman  shall  have  the  best  of  it  all  around.  This  can- 
not be  done  by  abolishing  work,  for  work  cannot  be 
abolished;  but  it  can  be  done  by  abolishing  those  lim- 
itations and  false  practices  which  have  kept  from  the 
worker  the  reward  w^iich  ought  to  be  his. 

Profit-sharing,  additional  annual  bonuses,  stock- 
sharing  and  dividends,  a  close  and  sympathetic  inter- 
change of  counsel  between  the  production  and  man- 
agement parts  of  the  business ;  or,  to  state  it  another 
way,  between  the  strictly  business  and  the  strictly  hu- 
man aspects — these  constitute  a  promising  beginning. 
The  human  part  must  serve  the  business  part,  else 
there  would  be  no  great  center  of  useful  work  which 
would  provide  the  living  of  all  employed  there ;  yet 
the  business  part  must  also  serve  the  human  part,  else 
the  service  which  the  business  can  render  to  human 
well-being  would  be  cut  in  half. 

The  principle  wliich  must  become  clear  to  the  mind 
of  ihis  and  the  ccjniing  generjition  is  that  good  inten- 
tions plus  well-thought-out  working  designs,  can  be 
put  into  practice  and  can  be  made  to  succeed. 

There  is  nothing  inherently  impossible  in  plans  to 
increase  the  well-being  of  the  workingman. 

259 


FORD    IDEALS 

If  there  has  seemed  to  be,  it  is  only  because  the 
world  has  heretofore  thrown  all  of  its  thought  and 
energy  into  selfish  schemes  for  personal  profits. 

If  the  world  will  give  as  much  attention  and  in- 
terest and  energy  to  the  making  of  plans  that  will 
profit  the  other  fellow,  such  plans  can  be  established 
on  just  as  practical  a  basis  as  the  others  were — with 
this  additional  advantage :  the  latter  kind  of  plan  will 
last  longer  than  the  other  kind,  and  will  be  far  more 
profitable  both  in  human  and  financial  values. 

What  this  generation  needs  is  a  deep  faith,  a  pro- 
found conviction  in  the  practicability  of  righteousness, 
justice  and  humanity  in  industry. 

If  we  cannot  have  these  qualities,  then  we  were 
better  off  without  industry.  Indeed,  if  we  cannot  get 
those  qualities,  the  days  of  industry  are  numbered. 
But  we  can  get  them.    We  are  getting  them. 

There  will  come  men  whose  highest  joy  will  be 
to  diffuse  benefits  instead  of  accumulating  heaps  of 
personal  profits  which  they  will  never  use.  There  will 
come  a  race  of  men  to  whom  money  will  mean  only 
the  opportunity  to  develop  still  bigger  benefits  for  the 
men  and  their  families  who  carry  the  world  on  their 
shoulders. 

If  selfishness  can  only  be  curbed,  if  the  long-range 
values  can  only  be  shown  in  their  desirable  lights,  if 
men  who  are  in  authority  could  only  see  the  wisdom 
of  exchanging  the  low  gratifications  of  mere  gain  for 
the  finer  gratifications  of  human  service — -why,  then 
there  would  be  no  end  to  what  might  be  done. 

The  Good  is  the  only  practicable.  Anything  less 
than  that  is  not  only  impracticable  in  any  sense  what- 
soever, but  it  is  vanishing  too. 


260 


Party  Politics 


THE  open  season  for  politics  is  upon  us.  The 
voice  of  the  candidate  is  heard  in  the  land.  "Key- 
notes," which  are  strangely  out  of  key  with  the 
thought  and  needs  of  the  people,  are  being  piped  in 
various  quarters.  And  the  offices  of  authority  and 
influence,  which  are  soon  to  be  opened  for  a  con- 
firmation or  a  change  of  policy,  have  not  the  smallest 
opportunity  to  go  seeking  for  men  to  fill  them,  they 
are  always  besieged  beforehand  by  men  of  all  degrees 
of  fitness  and  unfitness ;  so  that  the  attaining  of  an 
office  has  come  to  be  a  more  thrilling  political  motive 
than  the  filling  of  it. 

There  is  nothing  to  say  against  politics  as  such, 
but  only  against  its  governing  motives  when  these  are 
wrong.  The  only  motive  that  can  keep  politics  pure  is 
the  motive  of  doing  good  for  one's  country  and  its 
people. 

Originally,  politics  belonged  to  the  citizens  of  the 
state.  They  inaugurated  the  issues  and  they  proposed 
the  policies  that  should  be  applied.  Politics  was  simply 
the  application  of  the  community  mind  to  the  com- 
munity problem.  As  such,  politics  may  have  been 
unwise  sometimes,  but  not  unclean.  A  community 
may  not  always  know  what  is  best  to  do  for  itself, 
but  whatever  it  does  is  done  with  good  intention.  It 
is  contrary  to  experience  to  say  that  the  people  arc 
the  depository  of  political  wisdom;  political  wisdom 
exists  in  small  quantities  at  any  time ;  but  it  is  abso- 
lutely true,  and  it  is  our  duty  always  to  insist  upon  it. 
that  the  people  are  the  depository  of  political  power. 
Wherever  political  power  is  permitted  the  people  in 
its  fullness,  there  is  likely  to  be  fewer  errors ;  and 
when  errors  are  made  there  is  likely  to  be  a  readier 
and  more  pliant  reversal  of  them,  than  where  the  peo- 
ple are  permitted  only  partial  power. 

But  politics  in  our  day  is  not  so  much  a  ])opuIar 
matter   as   a   professional   matter.      Instead   of    beins; 


FORD    IDEALS 


always  the  exact  effect  of  the  whole  community's 
thought  upon  public  questions,  it  is  often  only  the 
community  choice  between  two  limited  programs  pre- 
pared by  professional  partisans  who  themselves  have 
personal  aspirations  to  serve  or  whose  welfare  is 
linked  up  with  the  personal  aspirations  of  others. 

There  was  a  time  when  parties  represented  very 
accurately  the  divisions  of  public  conviction  upon  pub- 
lic questions.  It  is  questionable  if  they  do  so  now, 
to  as  great  an  extent.  In  any  event,  there  is  a  less 
rigid  adherence  to  party  on  the  part  of  the  people; 
there  is  an  easy  passage  back  and  forth  as  one  party 
or  another  seems  to  represent  the  popular  mind. 

This  of  itself  indicates  that  professional  partisan- 
ship and  not  popular  influence  constitutes  the  mechan- 
ism of  politics.  Parties  come  more  and  more  to  mean 
the  men  who  are  in  charge  of  the  partisan  machinery, 
the  political  corporation,  so  to  speak,  of  this  name  or 
that.  They  constitute  a  hierarchy  which  exists  within 
itself,  with  very  slender  sanction  from  below. 

This  upper  and  inner  circle  is  a  sort  of  unofficial 
supreme  court.  It  passes  on  issues  and  policies  and 
candidates.  Its  purpose  is  to  "sell"  itself  to  a  ma- 
jority of  the  voting  public  by  setting  forth  the  most 
attractive  candidate  or  the  most  alluring  promises. 
When  the  "party"  goes  into  power,  it  is  really  a  very 
few  men  who  go  into  power.  The  party  is  the  support 
this  inner  circle  was  able  to  win  at  the  polls. 

It  is  very  easy  to  see  that  this  view  is  correct  if 
you  will  consider  how  many  times  and  for  how  long  a 
time  the  people  have  had  to  knock  at  the  door  of  party 
councils  to  induce  the  "leaders"  to  consider  some  is- 
sue and  some  reform  which  the  people  deemed  press- 
ingly  necessary.  We  have  had  some  experiences  along 
that  line  that  make  very  curious  spectacles  indeed. 

Imagine  a  party,  supposed  to  be  the  channel  and 
outlet  of  the  people's  thought,  having  power  enough 
in  its  upper  councils  to  refuse  to  consider  the  people's 
thought  and  insist  upon  determining  within  what  lim- 
its the  people  shall  think  and  vote.  Politics  as  a  par- 
tisan profession  has  always  been  the  barrier  and  enemy 
of  politics  as  the  natural  upflow  of  the  popular  mind 
on  public  questions.     It  has. frequently  occurred  that" 


262 


PARTY    POLITICS 


by  an  apparent  agreement  between  the  leaders  of  both 
parties,  the  people  who  adhere  to  the  parties  were  nar- 
rowly limited  as  to  the  matters  they  could  vote  upon. 
Whereas  politics  in  its  real  sense  makes  for  the  fullest 
expression,  in  its  partisan  sense  it  has  been  the  strong 
instrument  of  suppression.  The  "slate"  has  been  a 
boundary  which  the  people  have  been  forbidden  to 
pass. 

It  is  apparent,  however,  that  a  change  is  beginning 
to  come.  Not  that  the  partisan  and  professional  poli- 
tician has  changed  his  spots — which  even  an  optimist 
could  not  expect — but  an  alarming  aloofness  from 
partisan  political  authority  is  being  exhibited  by  the 
people. 

The  people  plainly  have  the  "leaders"  guessing. 
The  "leaders"  were  never  more  a  close  corporation 
than  they  now  are,  but  they  can  no  longer  count  the 
people  as  one  of  their  safe  assets.  The  people  have  de- 
veloped something  more  than  independence  of  mind, 
it  even  approaches  contempt  for  a  class  of  self-styled 
leaders. 

The  people  have  apparently  left  the  "organization" 
high  and  dry,  and  politics  in  the  ordinary  sense  fails 
to  get  the  rise  out  of  them  that  it  used  to  get. 

And  yet,  anyone  who  would  believe,  as  a  result  of 
this  condition,  that  the  people  are  simply  indifferent 
and  will  leave  the  whole  question  to  the  party  corpora- 
tions, does  not  know  the  American  people.  They  are 
not  indifferent.  They  are  not  going  to  surrender  their 
citizens'  rights  to  anyone.  They  are  going  to  exer- 
cise them,  but  just  how,  upon  what  issue,  or  for  what 
candidate,  has  not  yet  appeared. 

The  people  are  interested  in  wider  views  than  the 
politicians  are  ready  to  entertain. 

As  a  result  of  our  political  system,  the  people  have 
had  a  very  costly  experience  in  recent  years.  The  war 
gave  them  a  new  education  in  national  and  interna- 
tional affairs.  They  are  thinking  in  broader  terms 
than  ever  before.  They  are  not  thinking  in  terms  of 
one  state,  or  one  party,  or  one  nation.  They  know 
now  that  all  humanity  is  interrelated.  They  know  that 
any  prosperity  we  buy  at  the  cost  of  adversity  to  an- 
other people  is  sure  to  react  upon  us.     Thev  know 

263 


FORD    IDEALS 


that  we  cannot  build  our  little  paradise  here  or  any- 
where else,  and  remain  regardless  of  the  world  around. 
The  internationalism  of  humanity,  of  liberty,  of  eco- 
nomic balance,  of  supply  and  demand,  of  service  and 
reward,  have  all  been  very  plainly  observed  by  our 
people.  And  there  is  no  indication  that  the  leaders  of 
the  partisan  councils  have  been  nearly  so  observant, 
or  that  their  education  has  been  broadened  by  the 
events  through  which  the  world  has  passed. 

It  is  too  late  now  to  talk  of  nationalism  or  inter- 
nationalism. That  question  was  settled  when  we  en- 
tered the  war. 

Something  bigger  than  a  "party  ticket"  is  asked 
by  the  people  this  year.  Something  that  carries  more 
assurance  than  the  "party  platform"  of  other  years. 

"Getting  power"  or  "keeping  power"  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  vital  and  fundamental  needs  of  the 
nation  at  this  time,  both  in  its  internal  afifairs  and  its 
international  relations.  We  want  a  program,  Amer- 
ican and  humanitarian,  which  the  American  and  hu- 
manitarian elements  of  all  parties  would  be  bound  to 
support  and  put  through.  Such  a  program  would 
leave  little  room  for  partisan  fights,  but  it  would  clear 
the  stage  for  the  next  step  of  progress  which  already 
has  been  far  too  long  delayed,  and  enable  us  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  work  of  reconstruction. 


264 


Honest  and  Dishonest 
Propaganda 

WE  HAVE  seen  a  great  deal  of  propaganda  dur- 
ing the  last  five  years  and  have  had  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  appraise  its  wisdom,  sincerity  and  eflfective- 
ness.  The  fact  that  it  still  continues  to  be  used  for 
one  purpose  or  another,  with  an  assurance  that  the 
human  mind  can  be  wheeled  into  position  and  marched 
this  way  or  that  as  the  propagandist  desires,  is  be- 
ginning to  get  on  the  nerves  of  the  people ;  they  are 
reaching  out  beyond  the  propaganda  for  the  facts,  just 
as  in  a  lawsuit  the  jury  reaches  out  beyond  the  con- 
tentions of  the  lawyers  to  get  at  the  knowledge  which 
the  witnesses  may  have. 

Like  the  great  financial  "drives,"  this  new  busi- 
ness of  propaganda  has  become  so  very  obtrusive  that 
it  is  compelling  a  rather  critical  scrutiny.  There  was 
a  time  when  all  you  had  to  do  was  to  start  a  "drive," 
threaten  the  non-contributors  with  an  unpopular 
stigma,  and  millions  rolled  in.  But  even  the  "drives" 
are  falling  down.  And  the  simple  reason  is  that  you 
cannot  "drive"  people  to  think  any  more  than  you 
can  "drive"  them  to  give. 

Legitimate  propaganda  during  the  war  period  is 
very  simply  described.  The  nation  was  agreed  that, 
being  rightly  in  the  war  and  on  the  right  side,  it  had 
to  win.  It  did  not  have  to  be  urged  to  a  desire  to  win. 
The  desire  was  there.  Propaganda  did  not  create  it ; 
propaganda  did  not  increase  it.  All  that  propaganda 
did  was  to  tell  the  people  how  they  could  help  to  win. 
It  was  a  distribution  of  information,  not  a  storm  of 
argument;  it  was  knowledge  and  education,  not  mere 
exhortation. 

zAnd  that  is  the  mark  of  legitimate  propaganda  at 
all  times — the  facts.  A  fact  is  like  granite — it  stays. 
Winter  will  not  freeze  it,  summer  will  not  melt  it. 
rains  will  not  wash  it  away.  Men  may  neglect  it  for 
a  lone:  time.     Thev  niav  stumble  over  it  and  curse  it 


FORD    IDEALS 


many  times.  But  after  a  while  they  begin  to  build 
with  it.  The  man  with  a  fact  need  not  worry  about 
the  indifference  of  the  multitudes;  let  him  tie  up  to 
his  fact.  In  due  time  it  will  find  its  place.  But  he 
must  be  careful  that  it  is  a  Fact,  and  not  merely  a 
notion  of  something  he  thinks  could  be  made  a  fact 
if  he  could  get  enough  people  to  agree  with  him. 
Agreement  doesn't  make  facts.  But  facts  make  agree- 
ment. People  who  don't  agree  with  facts  get  bumped 
by  them.  But  it  is  not  your  place  to  do  the  bumping — 
the  fact  takes  care  of  that. 

What  kills  propaganda  is  the  obvious  purpose  be- 
hind it.  One  little  admixture  of  self-interest  and 
your  effort  is  wasted.  You  cannot  preach  patriotism 
to  men  for  the  purpose  of  getting  them  to  stand  still 
while  you  rob  them — and  get  away  with  that  kind  of 
preaching  very  long. 

You  cannot  preach  the  duty  of  working  hard  and 
producing  plentifully,  and  make  that  a  screen  for  an 
additional  profit  to  yourself. 

There  has  been  too  much  of  this  kind  of  psycho- 
logical crime  committed  in  the  world  these  past  few 
years — the  crime  of  bringing  men  to  act  from  the 
highest  and  sincerest  motives  of  self-sacrifice,  and 
then  using  that  high  spirit  for  the  lowest  purposes. 

We  are  going  to  pay  the  price  of  that  sort  of 
trifling,  for  there  is  nothing  th?'^  '^eals  so  slowly  and 
hurts  so  long  as  wounded  faith. 

Just  now  the  country  is  being  flooded  with  propa- 
ganda designed  to  improve  the  state  of  mind  in  which 
the  people  find  themselves  with  regard  to  industrial 
and  economic  questions.  This  new  propaganda  con- 
tains much  truth,  a  great  many  things  which  the  people 
need  to  know,  and  knowing  which  they  would  be 
saved  from  some  very  grave  errors  of  thought  and 
action. 

But  for  the  most  part  it  is  propaganda  from  a  class 
to  a  class,  and  it  has  a  design  behind  it  which  arouses 
suspicion. 

The  workingman  is  not  going  to  take  his  views  of 
duty  from  a  man  or  a  class  whose  privileges  or  profits 
depend  on  the  workingman  taking  that  point  of  view. 

Employers  or  capitalists  or  close  corporations  of 

266 


HONEST     AND     DISHONEST     PROPAGANDA 

international  speculators  who  think  they  can  mobilize 
the  mind  of  the  common  people  and  issue  orders  to 
it,  or  who  think  they  can  hire  a  few  writers  and  speak- 
ers and  solve  the  whole  troublesome  situation  with 
nicely  selected  words  and  phrases,  are  either  very  ig- 
norant of  human  nature  or  are  unbalanced  by  an 
exaggerated  sense  of  their  own  importance  and 
wisdom. 

The  plain  people  have  stood  in  line  a  long  time 
and  have  been  lectured  and  ordered  about.  As  long 
as  they  were  persuaded  that  it  was  for  the  good  of 
their  country  to  be  thus  regimented,  they  agreed  to  it. 
But  the  wastes  and  shameless  profiteering  which  ac- 
companied the  war  have  brought  them  a  disgusting 
sense  that  in  sacrifice  as  in  other  things  there  may  be 
class  lines  too;  one  mass  may  do  all  the  sacrificing, 
while  one  class  reaps  all  the  gains. 

Propaganda  issuing  from  a  recognized  class  whose 
interests  are  all  bound  up  in  the  preservation  of  the 
old  order  of  things,  is  not  only  a  waste  of  effort,  it  is 
a  positive  irritant  to  the  people  to  whom  it  is  ad- 
dressed. They  resent  it,  and  there  is  hot  blood  in  their 
resentment. 

Undoubtedly  the  employing  class  possess  facts 
which  their  employes  ought  to  know  in  order  to  con- 
struct sound  opinions  and  pass  fair  judgments;  and 
undoubtedly  the  employed  class  possess  facts  which  are 
equally  important  to  the  case  and  which  everyone 
ought  to  know. 

It  is  extremely  doubtful,  however,  that  either  side 
has  all  the  facts. 

And  this  is  where  propaganda,  even  if  it  were 
possible  for  it  to  be  entirely  successful,  is  defective. 
It  is  not  desirable  that  one  set  of  ideas  be  "put  over" 
on  a  class  holding  another  set  of  ideas,  but  that  out 
of  both  sets  of  ideas  the  true,  constructive  and  har- 
monizing truth   may  be  brought   forth. 

If  you  are  going  to  rely  on  ideas,  that  is  the  way 
you  must  get  them. 

l^jut  there  is  something  better,  more  inimediatelv 
effective  than  the  propaganda  of  ideas  just  now,  and 
that  is  the  Act  that  illustrates  the  Idea. 

The  best  propaganda  an  employer  can   use   is  to 

267 


FORD    IDEALS 


do  right  now  for  his  own  men  what  he  knows  he  can 
and  ought  to  do. 

We  have  been  waiting  too  much  for  "social 
changes."    We  might  make  a  start  with  shop  changes. 

We  have  been  talking  too  much  about  the  "con- 
flict of  the  classes."  We  might  make  a  start  toward 
abolishing  classes  in  our  own  sphere  of  influence. 

The  best  propaganda  you  can  ever  have  is  the 
reputation  of  being  square,  humane  and  thoughtful 
of  others  all  the  time.  There  are  some  things  you 
can  never  tell  men,  nor  persuade  them  of  by  speech 
or  literature.  But  if  the  things  are  there,  the  men  will 
knozv  it — you  may  be  sure  of  that. 

There  is  a  great  fever  and  flutter  in  certain  high 
financial  circles,  and  much  speaking  and  discussion, 
about  getting  in  closer  touch  with  the  men,  introducing 
the  human  element,  and  so  on. 

It  is  all  very  good.  But  you  will  have  to  take  it 
out  of  speeches  and  committees — you  will  have  to  get 
it  into  your  own  heart  first.  You  have  got  to  do 
something  that  no  one  but  yourself  can  do.  That  is, 
what  you  do  must  be  personal  and  it  must  cost  you 
something.  It  is  too  late  in  the  day  for  mere  "jolly- 
ing" and  "gladhanding."  Men  are  ready  to  meet  you 
half  way,  but  it  must  be  something  more  than  a  senti- 
ment they  meet ;  it  must  be  the  real  thing;  actual,  mani- 
fest, worthy. 

Society  isn't  something  thrust  down  upon  us  by 
some  law ;  we  make  it  ourselves.  Social  conditions 
are  not  made  for  us  from  outside,  like  the  weather; 
we  make  them  ourselves ;  they  are  the  net  result  of  the 
daily  relations  between  man  and  man.  We  give  them 
high-sounding  names,  but  this  is  all  they  really  are. 

Every  shop  can  become  a  center  of  a  new  social 
order  simply  through  the  introduction  of  a  new  so- 
cial spirit — a  new  social  spirit  evidenced  by  some  act 
which  costs  the  management  something  and  which 
benefits  all.  That  is  the  only  way  you  can  prove  your 
good  intentions  and  win  respect  for  your  attitude. 
Propaganda,  bulletins,  lectures,  everything  that  can 
be  hired  done  or  made  by  machine  fades  into  insig- 
nificance beside  the  persuading,  compelling  power  of 
a  right  act  sincerely  done. 


268 


Grow  Along  With  the  Business 


WE  WHO  have  found  our  place  in  life  and  have 
become  matured,  are  sometimes  inclined  to  for- 
get that  the  young  men  who  are  coming  after  us  are 
troubled  by  the  same  urge  and  the  same  questions 
which  troubled  us.  Every  young  man  who  is  sensitive 
and  intelligent  enough  to  realize  that  the  life  before 
him  must  be  made  is  almost  certain  to  pass  through  a 
period  of  painful  searching  before  he  finds  the  place 
which  he  feels  will  give  him  his  opportunity.  He 
knows  he  must  work,  but  where  ?  at  what  ?  He  knows 
there  is  a  place  for  him  somewhere,  but  how  can  he 
find  it? 

We  are  likely  to  forget  this  pain  of  youth.  We 
are  likely  to  forget  how  earnestly  we  sought  counsel  of 
older  folks,  and  how  inadequate  and  unconvincing  the 
counsel  was  when  we  got  it.  And  yet  young  men,  in 
spite  of  all  their  apparent  difference  from  what  we 
were  when  we  were  young,  are  really  treading  the 
same  paths.  The  world  of  affairs  has  changed  a  great 
deal,  but  man  has  not. 

It  is  not  the  intention  of  this  article  to  give  any  of 
the  ordinary  advice  to  young  men.  There  are  certain 
things  which  were  true  a  thousand  years  ago  and  will 
be  true  a  thousand  years  hence  if  civilization  endures 
that  long,  and  which  ever\one  knows — knows,  that 
is,  as  far  as  being  atvare  can  constitute  knowledge ; 
but  there  is  a  knowledge  by  experience  which  drives 
the  outer  knowledge  home  and  clinches  it  like  a  nail. 
And  this  experience  cannot  be  provided  for  another 
or  substituted.  The  best  we  can  do  in  that  matter  is 
to  prevent  as  far  as  possible  the  needless  and  bitter 
experiences  which  come  from  folly. 

But  perhaps  it  would  serve  a  useful  purpose  if  we 
answered  the  young  man's  (pu'stion  as  to  whether  tlie 
new  industrial  conditions  of  the  world  have  had  an 
efTect  on  his  chances  to  achieve  success  in  a  special 
wav ;   that    is,    whether   the    intensive   organization   of 

269 


FORD    IDEALS 

our  life  has  not  operated  to  close  up  some  of  the 
former  avenues  of  advancement. 

There  is  no  use  whatever  in  dealing  with  stale 
platitudes  in  such  a  matter  or  in  giving  the  young  man 
a  general  counsel.  Certain  matters  must  be  admitted 
at  once.  There  has  been  a  change,  but  in  what  does 
it  consist? 

It  is  true,  that  more  young  men  than  ever  before 
make  their  start  in  places  prepared  for  them.  To  the 
young  man  with  no  influence,  this  looks  like  a  disad- 
vantage at  the  very  outset.  But  he  is  exaggerating  its 
importance.  For  one  thing,  those  boys  who  drop  into 
nice  specially  prepared  places  do  not  always  make 
good ;  indeed,  a  very  small  percentage  of  them  do. 
No  man  of  affairs  ever  had  enough  sons  or  relatives  to 
run  his  business.  The  men  who  are  in  the  important 
places  of  American  business  concerns  are  not  the  men 
who  began  in  soft  berths ;  they  are  the  men  who 
showed  themselves  more  capable  than  those  who  were 
born  or  lifted  into  those  berths. 

It  may  also  be  admitted  that  the  young  man  who 
enters  industry  today  enters  a  very  different  system 
from  that  in  which  the  young  man  of  15  or  25  years 
ago  began  his  career.  The  system  has  been  tightened 
up,  there  is  less  "play"  or  friction  in  it ;  fewer  matters 
are  left  to  the  haphazard  will  of  the  individual ;  the 
modern  worker  finds  himself  part  of  an  organization 
which  apparently  leaves  him  little  initiative. 

Yet,  with  all  this,  it  is  not  true  that  "men  are  mere 
machines."  It  is  not  true  that  opportunity  has  been 
lost  in  organization.  If  the  young  man  will  liberate 
himself  from  his  false  ideas  of  this  matter  and  regard 
the  system  for  what  it  is,  rather  than  for  what  it  is 
not,  he  will  find  that  what  he  thought  was  a  barrier 
is   really  an  aid. 

Factory  organization  is  not  a  device  to  prevent  the 
expansion  of  ability,  but  a  device  to  reduce  the  waste 
and  losses  due  to  mediocrity.  It  is  not  a  device  to 
hinder  the  ambitious,  clear-headed  man  from  doing 
his  best,  but  a  device  to  prevent  the  don't-care  sort 
of  individual  from  doing  his  worst.  That  is  to  say, 
when  laziness,  carelessness,  slothfulness  and  lack-in- 
terest are  allowed  to  have  their  own  way,  everybody 

270 


GROW   ALONG   WITH   THE  BUSINESS 

suffers.  The  factory  cannot  prosper  and  therefore 
cannot  pay  living  wages.  When  an  organization  makes 
it  necessary  for  the  don't-care  class  to  do  better  than 
they  naturally  would,  it  is  for  their  benefit — they  are 
better  mentally,  physically  and  financially.  Ask  your- 
self how  much  wages  we  should  be  able  to  pay  if  we 
trusted  a  large  don't-care  class  to  their  own  methods 
and  gait  of  production.  Now,  the  young  man  ought  to 
get  that  idea  very  firmly  in  his  mind,  and  he  ought  to 
look  at  the  entire  question  seriously  and  observe  the 
system  itself  intelligently  to  see  if  this  is  not  just  the 
way  it  works. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  factory  system  which 
brought  mediocrity  up  to  a  higher  standard,  operated 
also  to  keep  ability  down  to  a  lower  standard — it 
would  be  a  very  bad  system,  a  very  bad  system  indeed. 
Even  a  system,  be  it  ever  so  perfect,  must  have  able 
individuals  to  operate  it.     No  system  operates  itself. 

More  brains  are  needed  today  than  ever  before, 
but  perhaps  they  are  not  needed  in  the  same  place  as 
they  once  were.  It  is  just  like  power;  formerly  every 
machine  was  run  by  foot  power;  the  power  was  right 
at  the  machine.  But  nowadays  we  have  moved  the 
power  back,  concentrated  it  in  the  power-house ;  it  is 
no  longer  necessary  to  generate  it  by  muscular  power 
at  the  machine.  Thus  also  we  have  made  it  unneces- 
sary for  the  highest  types  of  mental  ability  to  be  en- 
gaged in  every  operation  at  the  factory,  and  by  doing 
this  we  have  enabled  men  of  very  ordinary  mental 
equipment  to  profit  by  the  plans  of  men  of  larger 
mental  ability,  and  the  consequence  is  that  everybody 
is  producing  more  and  enjoying  more  than  ever  before. 

Everyone  who  knows  anything  and  "knows  that 
he  knows" — this  last  is  very  important — begins  at 
the  beginning;  that  is  to  say,  he  begins  wherever  he  is 
fit  to  begin.  Where  are  you  fit  to  begin?  "Well," 
says  a  young  fellow,  "I  suppose  I  would  have  to  be- 
gin at  the  bottom."  Good !  It  is  the  best  place  to 
begin  and  the  easiest  place  to  get  away  from. 

But,  remember  this,  yon  are  not  there  to  stay  un- 
less you  ought  to.  It  is  really  your  duty  to  progress 
in  order  to  make  room  for  the  man  behind  you. 

But  you  nnist  not  think  that  the  factory  exists  for 

271 


FORD    IDEALS 


the  express  purpose  of  promoting  you.  As  long  as 
you  are  there,  your  business  is  to  promote  the  business 
of  the  factory.    Then,  as  it  advances,  you  go  with  it. 

Every  business  that  is  growing  is  creating  new 
places  for  capable  men.  It  cannot  help  but  do  so.  A 
settled  business  that  is  just  holding  its  own,  where 
someone  must  die  or  resign  before  there  can  be  ad- 
vancements, is  necessarily  slow  in  promotions.  But 
growing  businesses  are  not. 

This  does  not  mean  that  new  openings  come  every 
day  and  in  groups.  Not  at  all.  Ambitious  young  fel- 
lows often  wish  that  chances  would  occur  at  a  rate 
which  would  be  simply  ruinous.  But  it  is  the  fellow 
who  can  stand  the  gaff  of  routine  for  a  long  time  and 
still  keep  himself  alive  and  alert  in  it,  that  will  be 
remembered  and  chosen.  It  is  not  sensational  bril- 
liance we  seek  in  our  business,  but  sound  substantial 
dependability  day  after  day.  Not  skyrockets,  but 
men  whose  sounder  qualities  can  be  depended  upon. 

More  young  men  lose  out  through  impatience  than 
any  other  cause.  Big  enterprises  of  necessity  move 
slowly  and  cautiously.  When  you  become  impatient, 
you  had  better  lay  it  away  for  a  year  or  two.  At  about 
the  same  time  that  you  saw  a  certain  thing  ought  to 
be  done,  and  were  irritated  because  it  was  not  done, 
your  superiors  saw  it  too,  and  began  to  readjust  af- 
fairs so  that  it  could  be  done.  That  takes  time.  Don't 
lose  your  own  chances  by  jumping  out  just  when  your 
advancement  might  have  been  absolutely  secured  by 
patient  industry.  Industry  is  just  doing  the  same  thing 
time  after  time  with  an  effort  to  do  it  better.  The 
young  man  with  an  ambition  for  his  own  future  ought 
to  take  a  long  look  ahead  and  leave  an  ample  margin 
of  time  for  things  to  happen. 


272 


Revolutions  Not  Promoters 
of  Progress 

THE  Root  problem,  after  all,  is  human  nature. 
But  to  say  that  is  to  lay  oneself  open  to  the  charge 
of  platitude.  There  is  an  almost  instinctive  human 
dislike  of  any  reminder  that  it  is  humanity,  and  not 
something  outside  of  humanity,  that  is  responsible  for 
conditions.  Even  our  wise  men  would  rather  talk 
learnedly  about  the  effects  of  faulty  human  nature,  as 
we  view  those  effects  in  society,  than  about  faulty 
human  nature  itself.  However,  there  is  a  very  good 
object  to  be  secured  in  compelling  people  to  think 
deeply  enough  at  times  to  penetrate  as  far  as  them- 
selves, as  far  as  their  own  secret  natures,  and  as  far 
as  their  individual  responsibility  for  conditions. 

We  don't  want  to  standardize  human  nature — -we 
could  not  if  we  would.  It  is  the  endless  variety  of 
individuality  that  makes  society  endurable.  But  what 
all  of  us  would  like  to  do  would  be  to  standardize  hu- 
man moral  dependability.  We  should  like  to  be  sure 
that  to  a  certain  essential  degree  we  could  absolutely 
depend  on  human  nature  "staying  put."  We  are  not 
sure  of  that  now.  We  arc  not  sure  that  we  ever  shall 
be  sure  of  it. 

We  can  depend  on  the  ability  of  certain  elements 
which  affect  human  nature.  Man's  need  of  food,  sleep, 
clothing  and  family  life  will  influence  him  to  a  consid- 
erable degree ;  but  even  in  spite  of  these  he  will  still 
remain  an  unknown  moral  quantity. 

When  you  form  blocks  of  granite  into  the  shape 
of  a  house,  you  are  pretty  sure  that  the  granite  is 
going  to  stay.  But  when  you  form  men  into  an  orderly 
society,  you  are  not  at  all  sure  how  long  that  form 
of  society  is  going  to  stay.  Unlike  material  of  the 
house,  the  material  of  society  changes  under  yop'- 
hands.  There  is  no  forecasting  wlicther  it  will  turr. 
into  adamant  or  sponge.  It  is  now  solid,  now  fluid, 
now  hot,  now  cold,  now  orderly,  now  exultin<j  in  vast 


FORD    IDEALS 

Whatever  may  be  the  conditions  in  which  we  find 
ourselves  at  present,  this  is  absolutely  true  of  them ; 
they  were  caused  by  people ;  they  are  being  continued 
by  people ;  they  will  change  when  people  change,  and 
not  before.  We  cannot  control  the  weather,  nor  every 
plague,  but  we  can  control — rather,  we  could  control 
if  we  would — our  social  weather,  with  its  storms,  its 
uncertainty,  its  destructiveness  and  its  unequal 
seasons. 

One  of  the  strange  phenomena  of  the  present  is 
the  ascendancy  of  the  destructive  type  of  mind. 

The  world  at  large  seems  to  be  infatuated  with  the 
idea  that  if  something  is  pulled  down,  something  is 
thereby  built  up;  if  something  is  destroyed,  something 
is  thereby  created. 

There  is  in  every  country  a  party  which  believes 
that  if  it  could  destroy  the  orderly  institutions  of  that 
country,  it  would  thereby  create  a  new  era  of  social 
justice. 

Every  community  has  a  group  which  believes  that 
if  only  the  channels  of  orderly  justice  and  decency 
could  be  smashed,  a  new  brotherhood  of  man  would 
rise  automatically  out  of  the  ruin. 

Would-be  philosophers  preach  the  doctrine  of  the 
necessity  of  revolution ;  never  was  any  progress  made, 
they  say,  except  through  violent  revolutions.  But 
everybody  knows  that  every  revolution  was  a  mistake 
and  disgraced  or  postponed  the  liberties  it  sought.  The 
most  revolutionary  thing  in  the  world  is  an  idea,  and 
a  conquering  idea  does  not  need  to  imprison,  punish 
or  kill  a  man  to  make  itself  powerful. 

In  the  name  of  Order,  disorder  is  counselled ;  in 
the  name  of  Liberty,  the  dictatorship  of  a  few  idle  and 
non-productive  agitators  is  urged ;  in  the  name  of 
Brotherhood,  profound  and  venomous  hatred  between 
the  classes  is  fomented.  Surely,  human  nature  is  the 
sum  of  all  contradictions ! 

What  every  thoughtful  man  should  fear  about  a 
possible  revolution  is  not  its  occurrence,  but  the  course 
it  would  take  after  it  was  started. 

The  difficulty  about  revolutions  is  the  impossibility 
of  controlling  them — an  impossibility  shared  even  by 
the  men  who  start  revolutions.     Thev  jjet  out  of  hand. 


REVOLUTIONS   NOT  PROMOTERS  OF  PROGRESS 

They  rage  like  forest-fires.  Very  often  they  destroy 
even  those  who  instigated  them. 

Revolutions  are  not  orderly,  social  forces  march- 
ing to  the  establishment  of  a  new  and  better  order. 
They  are  an  outlet  of  hellish  hatreds  and  unbridled 
passions,  massive  thefts,  the  death  of  moral  and  social 
responsibility,  a  most  horrible  debauch  of  all  that  is 
rottenest  in  human  nature. 

Humanity  does  not  know  of  what  stuff  it  is  made 
until  the  restraint  of  society  is  taken  off,  and  the  mask 
is  taken  off,  and  human  greeds  and  jealousies  and 
ignorances  and  passions  are  given  full  sway. 

The  revolutions  of  which  we  may  read  comfortably 
in  the  books  are  not  at  all  the  revolutions  the  people 
went  through.  The  real  thing  is  the  collapse  of  every 
element  that  justifies  mankind  considering  itself  as  a 
high  animal. 

However,  it  is  not  alone  to  the  disgruntled  man 
that  we  must  look  for  these  destructionist  influences. 
We  are  far  too  prone  to  talk  as  if  the  "Reds"  were 
the  only  ones  engaged  in  destroying  social  order  and 
the  solidity  of  social  institutions. 

Not  at  all.  Any  man,  rich  or  poor,  in  business  or 
in  politics,  who  does  anything  that  undermines  men's 
faith  in  the  essential  justice  at  least  of  society's  in- 
tentions, is  thereby  destroying  society  as  rapidly,  as 
menacingly,  as  criminally  as  any  "Red"  could  do  it. 

What  you  find  at  one  extreme  of  society,  that  you 
will  find  at  the  other.  Rich  criminals  make  poor 
criminals.  Lawless  millionaires  make  lawless  miners. 
Lawless  statesmen  make  lawless  citizens.  It  works 
out  inevitably  this  way. 

If  you  have  profiteers  in  the  big  brownstone  build- 
ings, you  will  have  hold-up  men  in  the  streets. 

If  you  have  a  "to  hell  with  the  People"  s]Mrit  in 
your  higher  offices,  you  arc  going  to  have  a  "to  hell 
with  the  Government"  spirit  in  the  lower  sections  of 
your  cities — and  don't  you  forget  it  !  What's  sauce 
for  the  cai)italistic  gander  is  sauce   for  the  laboristic 

It  is  not  too  nuich  to  say  that  the  whole  imi)etus 
of  this  present  plague  of  lawlessness  came  from  the 
top.  Its  whole  reason  for  being  comes  from  what 
we  so  wrongly  call  the  "ujjpcr  classes."     These  more 

275 


FORD    IDEALS 


favored  classes  were  lawless  first.  And  their  law- 
lessness is  coming  back  upon  them  with  redoubled 
retribution,  for  the  very  fact  that  it  is  they  who  are 
now  pleading  for  law  and  order  is  the  reason  why  the 
plea  is  laughed  at.  Yes,  law  that  the  people  may  be 
kept  in  order,  but  no  order  so  strict  as  that  the  priv- 
ileged ones  shall  have  to  obey  the  law ! — that  is  the 
mocking  answer. 

When  they  are  trying  the  criminals  of  the  Great 
War,  they  ought  not  to  overlook  the  profiteers. 

The  profiteer  is  the  most  dangerous  of  all  the 
"Reds"  that  have  ever  appeared  on  earth.  He  is  more 
dangerous  than  kings — for  we  can  get  rid  of  kings .^ 
He  is  even  more  dangerous  than  militarists — militar- 
ists turn  out  to  be  very  fallible  men  when  their  helmets 
and  gold  braid  are  removed.  But  the  profiteer  is  al- 
ways there,  playing  inside  all  the  lines,  making  money 
out  of  soldiers'  deaths  and  the  distress  of  nations — 
the   dirtiest   money   that   ever   found   its    way   into   a 

The  profiteer  ought  to  be  charged  specifically  with 
(a)  defrauding  the  Government,  (b)  treason  to  the 
Army,  (c)  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,  and 
(d)  fomenting  disloyalty  in  time  of  war. 

It  is  pretty  hard  to  gainsay  the  now  common  argu- 
ment that  a  society  which  harbors  the  profiteer  is 
itself   in  need  of   reform. 

The  profiteer  is  one  of  the  excuses — one  of  the 
good  excuses — which  the  "Reds"  offer  for  their  pres- 
ent attitude.  And  if  the  "Reds"  would  only  center 
their  attention  there  and  help  us  get  rid  of  the 
profiteers,  that  would  be  doing  a  regenerative  and 
constructive  act. 

The  crimes  of  the  profiteer  after  the  war,  the  in- 
crease of  his  already  too  big  gains  by  speculating  with 
the  food  of  the  people,  certainly  point  him  out  as  the 
one  influence  which  more  than  any  other  has  driven 
people  into  enmity  toward  our  present  form  of  society. 
This  is  where  the  destructive  spirit  was  born. 

Why  would  it  not  be  a  wise  move  to  attack  the 
destructive  spirit  at  its  source?  Why  not  go  after 
those  men  whose  actions  destroy  the  people's  faith  in 
the  possibility  of  justice?  They  ought  to  be  made 
to  pay  the  penalty,  and  not  society. 

276 


The  Obstructionist 


THE  destructionist  groups,  which  have  been  mak- 
ing so  much  noise  of  recent  months  and  causing 
the  government  so  much  difficulty  in  dealing  with 
them,  represent  a  type  of  individual  which  we  always 
have  with  us.  If  they  are  apparently  very  noisy  now 
about  destroying  the  more  settled  and  time-proved 
institutions,  it  is  only  because  these  institutions  hap- 
pen to  be  to  the  fore.  When  the  subject  was  some- 
thing else,  the  attitude  was  the  same. 

That  is  to  say,  the  man  whose  only  remedy  for 
governmental  flaws  is  to  destroy  the  government,  is 
the  same  type  of  man  who  goes  to  breaking  dishes  on 
the  floor  in  a  fit  of  anger.  He  would  rather  smash 
his  pipe  than  clean  it ;  he  would  rather  strike  his  son 
than  counsel  him ;  he  would  rather  damn  his  opponent 
than  understand  him. 

Whenever  men  of  this  type  are  placed  up  against 
any  problem  which  needs  intelligence  and  patience  for 
its  solution,  they  react  at  once  to  their  temperamental 
cure-all,  destruction.  They  are  the  kind  of  men  who 
rip  a  collar  to  pieces  because  a  buttonhole  will  not 
readily  open.  In  a  world  of  their  own  these  men 
would  not  be  bothersome,  for  in  a  world  controlled 
by  them  there  would  be  nothing  to  destroy.  The  very 
lack  of  the  product  of  other  men's  constructive  patience 
would  force  them  to  grub  for  the  means  to  live;  it 
would  leave  them  no  time  for  their  peculiar  disorder 
to  assert  itself.  There  is  mighty  little  of  the  de- 
structive element  in  a  state  of  society  which  strains 
everybody's  energies  to  make  both  ends  meet. 

Destructive  temperaments  are  largely  the  product 
of  a  condition  of  plenty  and  leisure.  "Men  kick  when 
they  wax  fat."  Destructiveness  is  a  pest  which  can 
live  only  in  cultivated  fields.  Let  it  destroy  that  on 
which  it  lives,  and  the  destructiveness  dies  too,  like  a 
mania  which  has  sated  itself. 

The  world  is  large  and  there  is  much   merit  in  a 

in 


FORD    IDEALS 

recent  suggestion  that  a  fertile  island  under  control 
of  the  United  States  should  be  set  aside  for  those  who 
apparently  abhor  government,  an  island  where,  with- 
out duress  or  hindrance  but  with  unlimited  encourage- 
ment, they  could  work  out  their  own  theories  to  logical 
conclusions  and  see  with  their  own  eyes  the  end 
thereof. 

However,  it  is  not  the  destructionists  that  society 
needs  to  fear  today,  but  another  and  larger  class  which 
we  may  call  The  Obstructionists.  The  absolute  de- 
structionists are  few  and  futile.  They  never  really 
destroy  except  in  the  physical  sense,  they  never  really 
change  anything;  at  best  they  are  but  the  tools  of 
those  whose  principles  are  constructive. 

But  the  Obstructionists  are  many  and  influential. 
The  friends  of  destruction  form  the  red-hot  center, 
but  there  is  an  outer  rim  of  people  who  escape  the  fire 
but  remain  within  range  of  the  heat — a  more  numer- 
ous group  than  the  others,  but  very  harmful. 

One  of  the  differences  between  the  two  is  this :  the 
destructionist  is  always  conscious  of  his  position  and 
purpose,  but  a  man  may  be  an  obstructionist  without 
knowing  it.  It  may  show  itself  in  him  not  so  much 
a  temper  as  a  bad  habit. 

If  we  could  assemble  the  wastes,  the  leaks,  the 
costly  hindrances  against  which  the  world  must  make 
headway  every  day,  the  sum  of  them  would  stagger  us. 
They  are  all  the  result  of  intentional  or  thoughtless  ob- 
structionism. 

Take  the  coal  situation :  everybody  connected  with 
it  in  any  way  whatsoever  has  come  in  for  his  criticism, 
and  yet  there  is  an  element  we  never  hear  about  that 
affects  every  coal  user.  The  little  thieves  that  rake 
the  coal  cars  at  every  stop- — ^how  much  do  they  add  to 
the  price  of  coal? 

Very  considerably.  A  car  is  shipped  containing  so 
many  tons.  It  arrives  containing  a  less  weight.  Short- 
age claims  are  made  and  the  railroads  have  to  make 
up  the  difference.  These  shortages  amount  to  very 
large  sums  of  money.  Who  pays  it?  Ultimately  the 
coal  user.  The  railroad,  to  protect  itself  against  the 
shortages  caused  by  thievery,  adds  the  cost  to  the  price 
of   carrying  the  coal.     The  man   who   uses   the  coal 

278 


THE    OBSTRUCTIONIST 

pays  for  the  average  amount  of  coal  the  thief  takes, 
in  order  that  he  may  get  the  amount  of  coal  he  ordered. 
Probably  never  a  single  coal  thief  ever  dreamed  that 
he  was  an  element  in  the  situation  at  all,  but  he  is. 
He  is  an  obstructionist. 

Little  dishonesties,  multiplied  by  twenty-five  or 
thirty  million  citizens,  are  a  far  costlier  drain  on  the 
country  than  the  large  dishonesties  of  a  few  powerful 
rich  men.  Yet  it  is  more  convenient  to  blame  the 
prominent  few  than  the  obscure  multitudes. 

In  fact  it  is  a  fetish  with  the  people  that  everyone 
may  be  wrong  but  them.  And  it  is  one  of  the  signs 
of  a  true  leader  of  the  people  that  he  dares  rebuke 
them,  that  he  does  not  praise  them  as  all-wise  and 
perfect. 

Obstructionism  is  the  real  trouble  of  the  country 
today.  The  attitude  of  a  large  portion  of  our  people 
seems  to  be  to  sag  back  in  the  breeching.  The  only 
use  of  a  breeching  is  to  hold  the  wagon  back !  When 
the  breeching  is  most  in  use,  the  wagon  is  going  down 
hill !    Let  this  be  a  word  to  the  wise. 

The  yard-master  down  at  the  freight  yards  is  also 
a  very  important  factor.  If  he  is  still  playing  the  old 
game  of  waiting  for  a  bribe  before  he  will  move 
urgently  needed  cars  in  or  out,  he  is  an  obstructionist. 
One  day's  delay  on  a  car  may  mean  the  loss  of  10,000 
days  of  work.  A  day's  delay  on  material  may  mean 
the  loss  of  an  important  contract.  No  one  can  com- 
pute the  loss  which  has  been  forced  on  the  people  of 
the  country  by  incompetency  or  unwillingness  among 
men  who  are  responsible  for  the  movement  of  ma- 
terial and  cars  throughout  the  land. 

But  it  is  the  same  wherever  obstructionism  prevails. 
I'^ven  an  office  boy  may  have  his  part  in  slowing  up 
the  business  day.  or  snarling  it  at  some  important 
point.  The  stenographer  may  unconsciously  disar- 
range a  whole  series  of  transactions.  The  janitor  re- 
s])onsibIc  for  the  lighting  or  heating  of  an  office  or 
factory  may  help  the  organization  press  forward  into 
the  collar,  or  assist  it  to  sag  back  in  the  breeching. 

.Someone  may  say,  "Why  talk  of  breeching  in  a 
day  of  gears?  Only  fanners  and  horsemen  will  un- 
derstand what  you  mean  by  breeching." 

279 


FORD    IDEALS 

Well,  this  is  the  reason :  life,  after  all,  is  run  by 
man-power.  You  may  dispense  with  horse-power 
both  in  man  and  beast — for  the  ordinary  use  of  hu- 
man energy  for  purposes  that  might  as  well  be  an- 
swered by  machinery,  is  just  taking  your  horse-power 
out  of  men's  bodies,  that  is  all. 

Man-power,  not  muscular  power,  but  man-power, 
is  still  the  staple  of  all  achievement. 

Men  harness  themselves  to  a  task.  The  power 
they  put  forth  in  it  is  their  interest,  their  efficiency, 
their  hope.  When  these  are  present  in  full  force,  men 
press  forward  into  the  collar ;  when  these  are  lacking, 
men  sag  back  into  the  breeching,  for  our  jobs  are  only 
the  harnesses  we  have  put  on  in  order  to  accomplish 
something.  If  we  sag  back  on  the  job,  we  hold  back 
the  load,  we  don't  deliver  the  goods. 

We  have  machinery  to  take  the  place  of  man's 
muscles ;  we  have  no  machinery  to  take  the  place  of 
his  willingness  and  interest.  Man  is  like  a  pulse,  he 
beats  strong  and  full,  or  slow  and  weak,  but  it  is  the 
pulse  that  determines  all  matters  at  last.  There  is  no 
substitute  for  men,  there  is  no  substitute  for  human 
co-operation  and  industry  and  willingness  to  put  things 
through. 

We  suffer  for  lack  of  that  man-power  which  it  is 
peculiarly  the  gift  of  man  to  put  forth — the  power 
of  self-motivation,  the  power  of  going  at  it  and  stick- 
ing to  it  and  getting  it  done.  Too  many  of  us  have 
become  wheelbarrows  which  must  be  trundled  along. 
We  need  to  become  self-starters,  and  so  move  ob- 
structions out  of  the  way.  instead  of  becoming  an 
obstruction  ourselves. 


280 


Would  the  Farmers  Strike? 


PERHAPS  you  overlooked  it  in  the  day's  news, 
because  the  most  important  occurrences  are  not 
always  deemed  worthy  of  emphasis  in  the  newspapers. 
But  the  fact  that  the  farmers  of  the  United  States 
have  considered  the  "strike"  as  a  method  of  solving 
their  own  difficulties,  and  have  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that  they  have  no  moral  right  to  strike,  is  one 
of  the  most  significant  decisions  made  in  this  genera- 
tion. And  the  conclusions  which  the  farmers  draw 
from  their  own  attitude  and  belief  are  of  very  great 
importance  to  the  labor  question  in  general.  Every- 
body at  one  time  or  another  has  asked  himself  the 
question,  "Suppose  the  farmers  should  strike — what 
then  ?"  Serious  men  have  been  appalled  by  the  mere 
suggestion. 

But  wiseacres,  who  apparently  do  not  know  what 
is  going  on,  have  put  it  aside  as  impossible.  "Why, 
the  farmers  are  not  organized,"  they  say.  Which 
shows  how  little  they  are  informed. 

It  was  at  a  national  meeting  of  the  organized 
farmers  of  the  United  States — The  National  Grange, 
the  Patrons  of  Husbandry,  the  American  Farm  Bureau 
I'^deration,  the  Cotton  States  Board  and  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Farmers'  Union  Presidents — whose  aggre- 
gate membership  covers  the  country  and  whose  in- 
iiuence  is  unimpeachable,  that  the  decision  referred 
to  was  made.  If  the  farmers  had  so  far  forgotten 
their  relation  and  duty  to  humanity  at  large  as  to  put 
their  private  or  class  rights  above  the  Public  Right,  it 
would  not  be  impossible  for  them  to  start  a  curtailing 
movement  that  would  make  the  wiseacres  turn  pale. 

This  national  meeting  adopted  a  memorial  from 
which   we   quote   one    paragraph : 

"What  would  be  the  verdict  of  the  people  if  the 
fanners  of  the  United  States  should  go  on  a  strike 
and  should  refuse  to  supply  the  zvants  and  needs  of 
those  "a'ho  are  not  in  a  p()sitio)i  to  produce  food  and 

281 


FORD    IDEALS 


clothing  for  themselves?  The  farmers  would  be  con- 
demned from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  and 
the  fact  would  he  pointed  out  that  the  owners  and 
tillers  of  the  land  had  no  right,  either  moral  or  legal, 
to  bring  about  such  a  calamity.  If  the  farmer  has  no 
such  right,  those  who  handle  his  products  have  no  such 
right." 

That  is  basically  sound — both  in  economics  and 
morals.  It  is  especially  notable  because  in  the  last 
sentence  it  links  all  industry  with  farming,  and  this 
is  a  point  that  we  often  forget. 

We  are  accustomed  to  say  that  the  farmer  pro- 
duces our  food.  That  is  a  partial  statement.  He 
produces  our  clothing  too.  Where  do  the  wool  and 
the  cotton  and  the  leather  and  the  flax  come  from? 
Why,  they  come  from  the  farm! 

Farming  produces  railroading  too.  Would  there 
be  any  railroads  without  farming?  The  farmer  feeds 
the  trainmen,  and  the  moving  of  crops  is  the  basic 
reason  for  the  railroads'  existence.  Farming  pro- 
duces manufacturing  too.  It  may  be  the  coal  beneath 
the  boilers  that  keeps  the  factory  wheels  turning,  but  it 
is  the  farmer's  products  that  keep  the  workers  going. 
Food  is  the  fuel  of  human  effort. 

Now,  whenever  railroad  men,  or  mechanics,  or 
miners  go  out  on  strike,  they  go  out  on  the  food  which 
the  farmer  furnishes.  The  farmer  is  the  commissary 
of  everything,  good  and  bad.  And  he  has  a  right  to 
his  word  when  the  very  products  of  his  toil  are  used 
to  create  conditions  which  make  it  harder  for  all  the 
people  to  live. 

The  three  great  arts  are  linked  together — Agri- 
culture, Transportation,  Manufacture.  They  all  serve 
each  other.  But  the  origin  and  sustenance  of  all  is 
Agriculture. 

The  farmer  feels  this  more  keenly  than  anyone 
else,  because  he  still  lives  amid  conditions  that  make 
for  sanity  of  mind.  He  lives  under  the  sky,  he  deals 
with  the  soil,  he  knows  the  flawless  and  beautiful  order 
of  nature's  laws ;  and  he  sees  also  that  the  anarchy 
of  human  society  is  not  constructive  but  steadily  de- 
structive. 

Yes,  he  could  strike  too.     The  farmer  could  strike 


WOULD  THE   FARMERS   STRIKE? 

hardest  of  all.  Why  doesn't  he?  Because  he  feels 
deep  and  sacredly  in  the  core  of  his  heart  that  when 
mere  man  grows  so  impudent  as  to  attempt  to  hold 
up  the  God-given  processes  of  nature,  it  would  con- 
stitute the  last  rebellion  of  mankind  on  the  physical 
plane.  Whether  he  would  say  it  in  just  those  words 
or  not,  this  is  what  the  farmer  feels.  If  he  struck 
he  would  be  a  traitor  to  Nature.  The  shining  sun, 
the  falling  shower  would  rebuke  him.  Seedtime  with- 
out seed  would  denounce  him,  and  harvest-time  with- 
out harvest  would  curse  him. 

No,  the  farmer  is  not  going  to  trifle  with  the 
Powers  that  are  above  and  around  him.  He  is  Priest 
of  the  Soil.  He  would  not  profane  his  earthly  altar. 
America  should  be  thankful  for  the  strength  of  the 
moral  imperative  among  American  farmers !  Now, 
the  question  is,  "Has  any  other  man  who  handles  the 
fruits  of  the  soil  the  right  to  do  what  the  farmer  has 
no  right  to  do?" 

Has  the  miner  the  right  to  refuse  coal  that  the 
wheat  may  be  baked  into  bread?  Has  the  spinner  a 
right  to  refuse  labor  that  the  cotton  and  wool  may  be 
spun  into  clothing?  Has  the  railroad  man  a  right  to 
refuse  his  skill  that  food  and  clothing  and  the  means 
of  living  might  be  transported  to  those  who  need 
them?  Clearly,  if  the  farmer  has  no  right  to  with- 
hold, the  others  have  not. 

To  say  these  things  is  to  challenge  many  popular 
fallacies.  Our  economic  past  has  been  so  filled  with 
greed  and  selfishness  and  absolute  wrongdoing  that  it 
is  difficult  for  some  to  believe  that  to  deny  the  right 
to  strike  is  not  also  to  deny  the  right  to  high  wages, 
proper  working  hours  and  conditions. 

Let  it  be  said  right  here  that  labor  has  a  right  to 
high  wages,  a  right  to  proper  hours,  a  right  to  proper 
conditions,  a  right  to  a  share  in  the  profits,  a  right  to 
a  voice  in  the  conduct  of  industry.  These  are  moral 
rights ;  they  are  inherent.  Whether  they  arc  acknowi- 
eclged  or  not,  whether  they  are  granted  or  not.  they 
still  remain  rights,  because  they  are  fundamentally 
human  rights — they  are  just,  they  are  good,  they  are 
humane,  they  arc  practicable,  they  produce  social  good 
and  prosperity. 

283 


FORD    IDEALS 


But  that  these  rights  entitle  anyone — to  quote  again 
from  the  Farmers'  memorial — "to  starve  the  people 
of  the  cities,"  in  order  to  force,  by  the  suffering  of 
the  innocent,  a  proper  respect  for  rights  on  the  part 
of  the  employing  class,  is  drawing  an  unwarrantable 
conclusion. 

"How  are  we  going  to  get  our  rights  without 
striking?"  Here  again  we  run  up  against  one  of  the 
snags  of  our  industrial  system.  If  an  employer  won't 
do  right,  how  is  he  to  be  made  to  do  right? 

Well,  how  would  it  do  to  educate  the  employer  to 
a  knowledge  of  how  he  could  do  the  right  thing  and 
make  it  pay?  And  the  men  can  do  that,  if  the  em- 
ployer is  not  bright  enough  to  see  it  for  himself.  (An 
employer  who  cannot  see  these  things  for  himself  is 
not  fit  to  direct  his  workmen.)  Men  have  been  di- 
viding themselves  oflF  into  classes  for  the  sake  of 
hindering  and  hurting  each  other,  when  they  should 
have  endeavored  to  draw  themselves  nearer  together 
for  the  sake  of  educating  each  other  in  different  points 
of  view.  The  employer  knows  things  that  the  employe 
doesn't  know,  and  the  employe  knows  things  that  the 
employer  doesn't  know — and  all  about  the  same  eco- 
nomic conditions  too.  The  sensible,  direct  way  would 
be,  not  to  begin  to  try  to  starve  each  other  out  because 
they  don't  know  the  same  things,  but  to  come  to- 
gether and  share  their  light,  and  all  get  the  broader 
point  of  view,  and  go  on  together  in  partnership  of 
production  and  profits. 

A  strike  is  war.  War  is  unnecessary.  War  is  an 
irrecoverable  loss  to  both  winner  and  loser.  Let  us 
delay  both  war  and  strikes  and  use  the  simpler  and 
more  effective  means  of  meeting  man  to  man,  face  to 
face,  as  fellow-laborers  who  desire  to  find  the  right 
basis.  For  it  is  only  the  right  basis  that  can  continue. 
Anything  that  is  not  right,  whether  it  temporarily 
favors  the  employes  or  the  employers,  cannot  last — 
because  it  is  not  right. 

And  anything  that  is  not  consistent  with  our  duty 
to  ourselves,  our  work  and  the  community,  is  not  right. 


284 


Who  Is  Their  Boss? 


THERE  has  been  an  interesting  evolution  in  the 
questions  which  the  people  have  put  to  office- 
seekers.  Years  ago  we  asked  candidates  what  they 
were  seeking  office  for.  This  was  the  consequence  of 
a  period  of  school  instruction  by  which  the  American 
boy  was  taught  to  admire  the  fame  and  glory  of  public 
office.  Merely  to  achieve  an  office  and  a  title  was 
considered  to  be  "success,"  and  naturally  men  did  not 
scruple  as  to  the  methods  by  which  the  success  was 
achieved.  Their  principal  occupation  after  election 
was  to  repay  at  public  expense  the  political  trainers 
who  groomed  them  for  the  race  and  counted  them  in. 
In  the  general  disgust  which  has  followed  this  seek- 
ing of  office  for  glory's  sake,  the  people  are  beginning 
to  ask  candidates  for  2vhat  they  were  working.  The 
people  exalted  the  standard  of  Fame  Through  Service 
rather  than  fame  through  office. 

There  is  now,  however,  a  new  question.  It  doesn't 
go  directly  or  exclusively  to  the  motives  a  candidate 
might  think  he  has,  but  to  the  masters  he  has.  The 
question  to  ask  of  candidates  today  is  not  only,  "Why 
do  you  want  this  office  ?  What  do  you  think  your  mo- 
tives are  in  seeking  it?"  but  rather,  "Who  specially 
wants  you  to  have  it?  Who  is  your  master?  I'^or 
whom  are  you  working?"  The  basis  of  the  new  ques- 
tion is  this :  Power  goes  with  office,  regardless  of  the 
strength  or  weakness  of  the  incumbent.  There  are 
concealed  interests  whose  whole  existence  depends 
on  such  a  hold  of  the  higher  offices.  Indeed,  it  is  the 
higher  offices  of  our  government  that  are  most  neces- 
sary to  the  continuance  of  certain  interests  and  priv- 
ileges. It  is  therefore  of  vital  importance  to  them 
that  they  retain  their  control,  and  there  is  no  surer 
way  of  doing  this  than  by  guarding  all  the  approaches 
to  our  highest  offices  so  that  oiiK'  a  certain  kind  of 
men  are  permitted  to  arrive  there. 

The   (jueslion,   "I'^or   whom   arc    vou    working?"    is 


FORD    IDEALS 

therefore  a  most  important  one  for  every  electorate 
to  ask  and  every  candidate  to  consider. 

But  here  is  the  amazing  thing — some  candidates 
don't  know  who  it  is  they  are  working  for!  They 
fancy  they  are  working  for  themselves.  They  some- 
times believe  they  are  working  for  the  people.  But 
they  do  not  always  know  who  their  real  masters  are. 
There  are  lawyers  in  America  who  do  not  know  who 
their  ultimate  clients  are :  they  know  the  person  with 
whom  they  do  business,  they  do  not  know  in  whose 
ultimate  interest  the  business  is  done. 

Likewise  there  are  financial  institutions  in  Amer- 
ica and  elsewhere  which  apparently  are  independent 
concerns,  managed  by  and  in  the  interests  of  the  men 
whose  names  appear  as  officers  and  directors.  But 
sometimes  even  these  men  do  not  know  whose  game 
they  are  playing.  They  are  but  the  "fronts"  of  in- 
terests which  are  never  known  to  the  public,  and  which 
keep  their  identity  concealed  that  they  may  the  better 
play  interest  against  interest. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  not  every  man  knows 
for  whom  he  is  working.  There  are  highly  placed 
men  in  these  United  States  who  would  get  the  sur- 
prise of  their  lives  if  they  followed  back  the  clues 
which  would  lead  them  to  their  real  masters. 

When  a  man  is  in  honest  business  he  wants  his 
name  to  appear  at  the  front  of  the  business.  The 
young  man  opens  a  shop  or  a  store  and  he  is  proud 
to  have  his  name  in  front.  He  puts  out  a  useful  and 
honestly  made  product  and  he  is  proud  to  have  his 
name  known  in  connection  with  it.  But  the  biggest 
business  interests  in  the  world,  those  who  play  back 
and  forth  with  the  riches  and  the  destiny  of  nations, 
never  want  their  names  to  be  known,  nor  their  organ- 
ization, nor  their  power.  They  break  themselves  up 
into  numerous  corporations  in  each  of  which  only  a 
trusted  agent  will  appear,  while  the  remainder  of  the 
men  will  apparently  be  the  real  masters  of  the  busi- 
ness, and  sometimes  actually  think  they  are. 

That  is  why  it  is  said  that  not  every  man  knows 
who  his  master  is.  And  it  behooves  every  man  to 
find  out;  especially  those  men  who  commit  their  lives 
to  the  searching  test  of  public  service. 

286 


WHO    IS    THEIR    BOSS? 

This  concealed  international  control  of  the  world 
flourishes  because  people  do  not  believe  it  exists.  They 
don't  see  how  it  can  exist.  They  imagine  no  selfish 
group  could  hold  together  strongly  enough  to  manage 
the  world.  But  if  they  knew  the  special  international 
elements  involved  they  would  readily  see  how  possible 
it  is.  Some  day  a  world-wide  exposure  will  be  made 
and  many  things  explained  which  have  always  puzzled 
the  plain  people,  and  we  shall  see  that  much  which  we 
have  charged  up  to  the  "mystery  of  life"  has  really 
been  the  deliberate  effect  of  a  deep-wrought,  unified 
international  but  private  program. 

In  politics  the  effect  of  this  control  has  been  to 
take  out  the  local  and  human  element.  That  is,  can- 
didates are  no  longer  selected  for  their  individual  at- 
titude with  reference  to  public  problems,  but  for  their 
relationship  to  this  invisible  hierarchy. 

Few  states  select  their  own  senators  any  longer, 
save  in  very  exceptional  instances.  The  national 
group,  taking  care  of  its  end  of  the  international 
group's  business,  knows  the  kind  of  man  it  wants, 
chooses  in  each  state  one  of  the  men  it  has  kept  in 
training,  and  creates  the  conditions  under  which  the 
people  elect  him.  It  appears  that  senators  no  longer 
represent  their  states ;  they  seem  to  represent  "in- 
terests" which  are  interstate  and  international. 

The  same  is  true  of  almost  every  office.  Repre- 
sentatives to  the  state  legislature  are  becoming  less 
and  less  district  representatives,  and  more  and  more 
the  representatives  of  state  and  national  "interests" 
in  their  districts.  Representatives  in  Congress  also 
tend  to  become  less  than  formerly  the  representatives 
of  the  people  who  voted  for  them,  and  more  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  interests  who  groomed  them  and 
nominated  them.  Even  governorships  are  going  the 
same  way. 

It  simply  indicates  that  instead  of  Government 
rooting  down  into  the  people,  it  is  heading  u})  into  an 
international  control  that  picks  out  of  the  midst  of 
the  people  the  men  who  will  serve  it. 

And  some  men  serve  it  unconsciously.  They  do 
not  always  know  the  source  of  the  business  that  has 
been  thrown  their  way.    They  do  not  always  know  the 

287 


FORD    IDEALS 


source  of  the  interest  which  is  shown  in  them.  They 
do  not  always  see  the  vision  which  others  have  of 
their  future  usability  in  office.  And  so  they  go  on, 
fancying  they  are  being  carried  on  the  pleasant  crest 
of  cumulative  success,  when  really  they  are  being 
picked  out  because  their  inclinations  or  obligations  may 
render  them  useful  at  some  time.  It  is  a  wonderful 
system  and  its  ramifications  have  no  end.  Cities  are 
networks,  states  are  networks,  nations  are  networks, 
and  the  whole  net  is  drawn  by  interests  who  have  no 
nationalistic  interests  whatever.  They  are  apart  from 
the  world,  living  upon  the  world,  using  the  world  as 
their  counting  table.  The  whole  system  is  founded 
on  self-interest.  Everyone  allied  with  it  gets  some- 
thing out  of  it.  The  little  fellows  get  a  little,  the  big 
fellows  get  more.  Usually  the  little  fellows  get  an 
income  and  a  taste  of  public  honor.  The  big  fellows 
get  the  big  public  honors.  It  is  what  the  public  has 
within  its  gift  that  keeps  the  system  going.  The  sys- 
tem never  sacrifices  anything  for  principle ;  it  has  no 
inspired  reformers ;  seldom  are  its  servants  big  enough 
to  be  called  States ;  the  whole  system  exists  to  curb 
and  destroy  the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  true  states- 
men. 

Who  is  master  of  all  these  men  who  want  the  high 
offices  within  your  gift?  Do  you  know?  Do  they 
know? 

Who  has  chosen  them  ?  Who  has  groomed  them  ? 
Who  is  supplying  the  means  by  which  the  bait  of  their 
personality  is  dangled  before  the  public? 

Is  there  any  difference  in  them?  Can  you  see  in 
the  lot  of  them  one  man  who  really  stands  out  in  all 
his  records  and  ideas  as  a  free  man,  untangled  by  any 
favors  ? 

That  is  the  mark  of  distinction.  Where  all  can- 
didates are  equally  acceptable  to  the  concealed  inter- 
ests, it  simply  is  proof  that  they  own  the  field. 


288 


The  American  Shop 


IF  YOU  ask  an  employer  what  kind  of  a  shop  he 
has,  he  should  be  able  to  make  the  proud  reply, 
"An  American  Shop."  If  you  ask  an  employe  in 
what  kind  of  a  shop  he  works,  he  too  should  be  able 
to  say,  "An  American  Shop."  There  are  all  kinds  of 
names  for  shops ;  there  is  the  closed  shop  and  the 
open  shop — terms  which  are  redolent  of  strife  and  ex- 
clusion ;  there  is  the  piece-work  shop  and  the  straight 
wage  shop;  there  is  the  shop  that  is  booming  along 
all  the  time  because  of  the  quality  of  its  workmanship, 
management  and  output,  and  there  is  the  shop  which 
hobbles  along  like  a  cripple,  hardly  able  to  live ;  there 
is  the  shop  where  human  principles  rule,  and  the  shop 
where  men  are  treated  as  impersonally  as  if  they  were 
but  raw  material.  But  the  main  difference  that  exists 
between  shops  is  just  this :  either  they  measure  up  to 
the  American  ideal,  or  they  do  not. 

There  are  many  employers  who  indulge  in  great 
talk  these  days  about  "100  per  cent  Americanism."  It 
would  be  a  good  thing  if  they  were  required  to  ac- 
company their  boast  by  a  statement  of  the  profits  they 
took  from  the  government  in  the  recent  war.  It  would 
be  found  that  the  percentage  of  their  profits  was 
equal  to  or  in  excess  of  the  percentage  of  purity  they 
claim  for  their  Americanism. 

The  flag  that  flies  above  the  sliop  is  not  the  only 
index  of  Americanism  a  shop  can  have ;  the  policy  that 
is  practiced  inside  tells  the  story.  We  all  reverence 
Our  Flag  as  the  symbol  of  a  great  free  people,  but 
we  cannot  reverence  all  the  uses  to  which  profiteers 
have  put  it. 

America  needs  the  American  Shop.  It  needs  it 
not  only  to  meet  the  vast  economic  problems  which 
confront  us  in  the  production  of  an  adequate  quantitv 
of  goods  ;  but  also  to  solve  tlic  i)rol)]cnis  wliich  have 
grown  out  of  past  injustices  on  the  part  of  both  lead- 
ership and  labor. 


FORD    IDEALS 


It  is  pretty  well  conceded,  even  by  the  most  slow- 
minded  employer,  that  the  question  of  production 
cannot  be  settled  until  the  question  of  the  producer  is 
settled.  The  principal  and  controlling  factor  in  all 
our  difficulties  is  the  human  element.  Indeed,  all  our 
difficulties,  of  whatever  nature,  are  human  difficulties : 
they  are  the  signs  of  humanity  in  trouble. 

What  would  be  some  of  the  characteristics  of  a 
true  American  Shop?  In  personnel  and  policy  it 
would  be  representative.  There  is  no  room  for  na- 
tional, racial  or  religious  prejudices  in  an  American 
Shop.  Its  purpose  is  industry,  and  that  ought  to  open 
wide  its  doors  to  all  the  industrious.  The  need  of 
men's  labor,  and  the  need  of  men  themselves  to  labor, 
is  universal.  Work  is  the  burden  laid  on  us  all  and  no 
man  shirks  it  without  doing  harm  to  himself  and  the 
whole  social  body.  No  race  is  superior,  no  race  is 
inferior,  neither  is  any  individual  so  superior  or  m- 
ferior  as  to  escape  the  necessity  of  work.  In  the 
arctics  and  in  the  tropics,  among  civilized  and  bar- 
barous peoples,  the  rule  of  "work  to  live"  is  operative, 
and  men  are  found  obeying  it.  There  are  no  class  dis- 
tinctions in  industry.  The  only  nobleman  an  enlight- 
ened estimate  can  recognize  is  the  citizen  who  is 
carrying  his  own  end  of  the  common  burden  and  do- 
ing a  little  more  in  order  that  society  may  be  carried 
along  prosperously  and  harmoniously. 

By  being  representative  in  policy  is  meant  that 
the  American  Shop  will  be  conducted  with  a  view  to 
all  the  rights  and  benefits  of  the  men  engaged  there 
and  that  portion  of  the  public  which  it  serves.  It  is 
too  sadly  true  that  in  the  past  most  shops  have  been 
conducted  with  a  view  to  the  benefit  of  one  individual, 
one  family  or  one  group  of  investors.  But  we  have 
come  upon  a  new  vision  in  industry.  We  have  caught 
sight  of  the  power  of  industry  to  make  men  as  well 
as  the  commodities  of  commerce.  When  we  consider 
how  much  of  our  waking  time  is  spent  in  working,  it 
is  a  thousand  pities  if  the  time  so  spent  does  not  con- 
tribute to  the  workman  himself,  in  his  moral,  social 
and  intellectual  life,  as  well  as  to  his  physical  needs. 
W^ork  is  sanative ;  it  is  educative ;  it  is  preservative. 
It  produces  results  in  the  man  himself  as  well  as  in 

290 


THE    AMERICAN    SHOP 

the  material  that  passes  under  his  hand.  But,  if  it 
only  sai)s  the  man,  if  it  makes  him  less  a  man,  if  it 
withdraws  him  from  a  sense  of  hclonging  to  and  serv- 
ing society,  there  is  something  wrong.  An  American 
Shop  will  protect  the  rights  of  all  engaged  in  it.  One 
of  the  greatest  errors  into  which  commercial  greed 
and  selhshness  have  led  us  is  the  acceptance  of  a 
policy  that  no  rights  are  to  he  granted  until  it  is  ab- 
solutely impossible  to  withhold  tliem  any  longer.  This 
has  led  to  a  sense  of  industrial  disturbance  which  has 
seriously  alTected  the  foundations  on  which  we  live 
at  peace  with  one  another.  The  American  Shop  will 
grant  rights  because  they  are  Rights,  in  the  sound 
faith  that  whatever  is  right  is  practicable,  and  if  not 
practicable  under  the  present  system,  then  under  a 
revised  system  which  common  sense  and  justice  shall 
erect. 

This  simply  means  that  the  principles  upon  which 
we  live  together  as  a  nation  and  out  of  which  we  have 
reared  our  great  free  institutions  shall  operate  in  in- 
dustry also.  It  is  the  transcription  of  the  Declaration 
and  the  Constitution  into  industrial  terms.  It  is  the 
act  of  making  our  political  liberty  complete  l)y  adding 
thereto  economic  liberty  also. 

Our  nation  has  been  slowly  made,  but  it  had  a 
great  advantage  in  starting  right.  Little  by  little  it 
has  modiiied  its  Constitution,  not  to  change  the  spirit 
of  it,  but  to  enlarge  its  application  and  to  render  it 
luore  effective  in  achieving  its  original   objects. 

And  in  this  way  our  industrial  relations  must  be 
remade.  We  have  certain  sound  foundations  now. 
We  believe  that  labor  is  what  all  nuist  engage  in  for 
selt-(level()])ment,  for  social  service,  and  to  promote 
the  evolution  of  hunianity.  We  have  no  fatuous  idea 
that  we  shall  ever  be  free  of  the  necessitv  of  work. 
Haked  bread  w  ill  never  grow  on  trees,  nor  will  Nature 
ever  j)rovide  us  with  homes  and  schools  readv  Iniilt. 

If  practices  and  attitudes  have  cre])t  in  which  are 
not  in  harmony  with  the  truth  that  we  are  all  luuiian 
beings  of  e(|ual  neecls.  then  these  will  have  to  be  re- 
vised and  corrected.  All  of  us  arc  fallible.  The  one 
and  (jnl_\-  superman  has  not  come,  but  we  are  in  a 
super-stage    of    societx'    wherein    the   general    level    of 


FORD    IDEALS 


power  and  vision  is  elevated  to  a  degree  that  a  previous 
age  would  have  considered  miraculous.  Therefore  we 
are  better  fitted  to  work  out  our  problems  by  our- 
selves, in  the  American  Way.  And  what  is  the  Amer- 
ican Way?  Why,  by  all  of  us  starting  out  with  the 
agreement  that  wisdom  is  not  the  exclusive  possession 
of  any  man  or  party.  All  that  we  have  in  this  coun- 
try is  the  outcome  of  many  points  of  view  merged  into 
a  workable  program.  We  have  all  shades  of  opinion 
in  this  country,  each  of  them  strongly  endorsed  and 
propagated.  But  the  country  itself  merges  all  shades 
into  one  distinctive  American  whole. 

The  American  Way  is  constructive.  It  grows  out 
of  ideas,  not  out  of  violence.  It  works  by  education, 
not  by  disintegration.  Nothing  permanent  is  accom- 
plished by  forces  pulling  apart,  because  in  this  coun- 
try everything  that  is  accomplished  comes  by  various 
opinions  pulling  together  toward  a  desired  end. 

There  is  no  difference  of  opinion  in  this  country 
as  to  what  we  desire  our  common  life  to  be.  All 
agree  on  the  desired  object.  The  difference  comes  in 
the  methods  of  attaining  it.  But  even  this  difference 
is  educational.  Radical  and  conservative  interact  upon 
each  other,  modify  each  other,  until  presently  they 
come  together  for  united  achievement.  That  is  the 
American  Way,  and  the  results  of  it  stand. 

The  American  Shop  should  reflect  the  Republic  in 
its  highest  ideals.  Liberty,  unity  and  fraternity  should 
be  its  bond  and  its  method  from  the  front  office  to  the 
last  man  at  the  last  machine  at  the  end  of  the  shop — 
and  then  out  beyond  to  all  the  families  which  the  shop 
serves,  and  to  the  public  which  is  the  beneficiary  of  its 
work  and  planning. 


29: 


The  Small  Town 


WE  LIVE  better  in  small  communities  than  in 
large  ones.  Individually  and  in  small  groups 
we  are  human,  but  in  great  masses  our  human  quali- 
ties seem  overruled.  Cities  have  no  souls  because 
their  whole  tendency  is  toward  soulless  conditions. 
In  small  communities  the  better  qualities  of  our  nature 
have  a  chance ;  they  have  a  much  better  chance  of 
setting  the  standard ;  but  in  large  communities  it  is  the 
looser  standards  and  the  more  heartless  qualities  that 
set  our  fashions  and  our  customs. 

Every  social  ailment  from  which  we  suffer  today 
originates  and  centers  in  the  great  cities.  But  you 
will  find  the  smaller  communities  living  along  in  uni- 
son with  the  seasons,  having  neither  extreme  poverty 
nor  wealth,  and  none  of  the  violent  plagues  of  up- 
heaval and  unrest  which  afflict  our  great  populations. 
There  is  something  about  a  city  of  a  million  people 
which  is  untamed  and  threatening,  while  30  miles  away 
are  happy  and  contented  villages  that  read  of  the 
ravings  of  the  city  as  if  it  were  an  unexplainable 
phenomenon.  A  great  city  is  really  a  helpless  mass. 
Everything  it  uses  is  carried  to  it.  Stop  the  transport 
and  the  city  stops.  It  lives  off  the  shelves  of  stores, 
but  the  shelves  produce  nothing.  The  city  cannot  feed, 
clothe,  warm  nor  house  itself ;  its  industries  are  de- 
pendent on  the  raw  materials  brought  to  them,  often 
from   a   thousand   miles. 

City  conditions  of  work  and  living  are  so  artificial 
that  men's  instincts  sometimes  rebel  against  the  un- 
naturalness  of  them.  Groups  of  men  soon  learn  how 
to  dislocate  the  city's  life  and  they  take  a  malicious 
pleasure  in  doing  it.  Designing  men  know  how  to 
upset  a  city's  sense  of  security  and  thus  force  for 
themselves  concessions  which  the  rest  of  the  people 
have  to  pay.  The  city,  especially  of  late  years,  has 
been  at  the  mercy  of  any  one  of  a  dozen  grouj)S,  all 
of  which  in  turn  use  their  dislocating  and  disturbing 


FORD    IDEALS 

power  to  compel  the  other  people  to  satisfy  them. 
The  strike  of  any  industry  is  a  strike  against  the  rest 
of  the  city.  If  it  be  more  than  a  local  strike,  it  is  a 
strike  against  the  rest  of  the  country.  All  strikes,  in 
their  last  analysis,  are  against  the  people. 

If  we  lived  in  smaller  communities  it  is  conceivable 
that  we  should  still  sometimes  rebel  against  being  shut 
up  within  four  walls  all  the  year  round.  It  is  a  strain 
upon  our  natures  to  work  indoors  all  the  time.  There 
is  a  part  of  the  year  which  calls  all  free  men  out-of- 
doors,  the  time  of  the  year  when  indeed  men  must  go 
out-of-doors  to  labor  if  food  is  to  be  provided  for  the 
people. 

Now,  if  we  lived  in  small  comnuinities  where  the 
human  touch  would  not  be  lost  in  the  mass ;  if  we 
had  a  good  and  useful  manufactory  set  up  beside  the 
nearby  stream  which  would  supply  us  with  water 
power  and  where  we  could  work  during  the  indoor 
months ;  then,  when  springtime  came  and  the  land 
called  to  us,  we  could  go. 

And  we  could  go  in  the  consciousness  that  we  were 
not  quitting  work,  nor  curtailing  production,  nor  dis- 
locating the  economic  processes  of  society,  but  doing 
the  thing  most  needful  at  the  time. 

The  city  not  only  produces  conditions  which  tend 
to  make  men  reckless  of  their  duty  to  bear  their  share 
of  the  work  of  production,  but  it  also  makes  it  im- 
possible for  men  to  give  vent  to  their  grievance,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  in  any  way  except  by  idleness.  Every 
protest  they  make  by  the  strike  method  is  sheer  loss. 
Leaving  out  of  the  question  the  other  damage  it  does  in 
increasing  the  feeling  of  uncertainty  and  undepend- 
ability,  the  distress  it  causes,  and  its  general  contribu- 
tion to  the  prevailing  condition,  a  strike  is  sheer  eco- 
n(jmic  loss. 

]f  a  body  of  men  became  dissatisfied  with  their 
work  in  the  railway  yards  or  the  shop  and  left  their 
jobs  to  go  out  and  work  in  the  fields  for  a  while,  there 
would  be  no  economic  loss.  What  they  withdrew  from 
transportation  or  manufacture  they  would  simply  con- 
tribute to  agriculture.  Their  ])roductive  capacities 
would  at  least  be  employed  in  a  useful  field,  and  result 
in  benefit  to  some  one.     But  as  it  is  now,  the  strike  is 


THE    SMALL   TOWN 


ail  appeal  to  idleness  and  loss  as  prime  weapons  in 
coercing  society.  The  men  just  stop.  And  as  a  re- 
sult, a  world  that  is  already  behind  in  everything  it 
needs,  is  thrust  behind  thousands  and  millions  of  days 
of  labor  more,  simply  because  a  few  men  have  learned 
and  applied  their  hindering  power. 

Industrial  disturbances,  we  are  learning,  are  not  so 
much  due  to  wages  or  hours  or  any  other  tangible 
condition,  as  to  "human  nature."  Just  plain  human 
nature.  A  workingman  in  a  certain  institution  com- 
plained of  his  job.  He  was  carefully  taken  around  to 
other  jobs,  some  of  them  less  important,  some  of  them 
more  important  than  the  one  which  irked  him.  He 
was  given  a  trial  on  all  of  them.  But  still  he  chafed. 
]^'inally  he  said,  "Well,  I  guess  I  won't  work  at  all  for 
a  little  while." 

Now,  all  the  industrial  conferences  in  the  world 
could  not  make  a  re])Utation  dealing  with  that  case. 
None  of  the  usual  elements  of  the  labor  problem  af- 
fected that  man  ;  it  was  just  "human  nature,"  a  sort 
of  schoolboy  carelessness.  He  had  been  drawing  good 
wages  and  therefore  felt  that  because  he  had  money 
in  his  pocket  he  had  a  right  to  withdraw  himself  from 
])roduction,  even  though  the  world  was  suffering  for 
lack  of  the  article  on  which  he  worked. 

Maybe  the  man  was  tired.  Maybe  he  wanted  a 
change.  If  we  were  organized  in  small  communities, 
with  the  town  manufacturing  establishment  next  door 
to  the  food-pi"oducing  fields,  such  a  man  would  have 
had  his  summer  work  out-of-doors,  and  he  would 
have  had  iiUerest  and  stamina  enough  for  his  indoor 
manufacturing  work.  lie  would  have  had.  in  other 
words,  a  balanced   work-ration. 

It  is  useless  to  say  that  everybocK-  ought  to  go  on 
the  farm  and  stay  there,  for  if  everybody  did  that, 
farming  would  soon  decline  as  a  satisfactorv  occupa- 
tion. It  is  just  as  ust'less  for  evervoiic  to  tlock  lo  the 
manufactming  towns,  for  if  the  farms  be  drsiTlcd,  of 
what  use  ari'  manufactures?  .\  cil\  cannot  li\c  on 
its  own   nianulactures. 

lint  when  a  recii)r()eit  \  exists  bt'lwccMi  farming 
and  manufacture,  the  mannfaeturer  giving  tlu'  farmer 
what   he  net'ds  to  be  a  good    larmer,  and  the    farmer 

295 


FORD    IDEALS 

and  other  producers  of  raw  materials  giving  the  manu- 
facturer what  he  needs  to  be  a  good  manufacturer; 
and  then  when  Transportation  comes  in  to  act  as  the 
messenger  between  Manufacture  and  Agriculture,  we 
have  a  system  that  is  stable  and  sound  because  it  is 
built  on  service  and  employs  these  three  principal  arts. 
If  we  lived  in  smaller  communities  where  the  tension 
of  living  were  not  so  high,  and  where  the  products 
of  the  fields  and  gardens  could  be  had  without  the 
interference  of  so  many  profiteers,  there  would  be 
less  unrest. 

Many  of  our  problems,  at  least  the  fiery  edge  of 
many  of  our  problems,  may  be  analyzed  down  to 
"nerves."  But  "nerves"  are  very  real  none-the-less. 
Only  when  the  condition  is  largely  "nerves"  it  would 
help  us  if  we  were  to  recognize  that  fact,  and  not 
charge  the  condition  to  some  other  cause  that  is  not 
responsible. 

There  is  no  reason  why  life  should  be  lived  at  such 
a  nervous  tension.  Moreover,  money  is  not  a  cure 
for  "nerves."  The  cure  is  in  a  saner  way  of  living, 
under  more  natural  conditions.  Economy  of  produc- 
tion will  probably  always  mean  large  groups  of  men 
working  together.  But  that  need  not  preclude  them 
working  in  close  proximity  to  the  open  fields  where 
they  may  be  in  touch  with  the  most  basic  industry, 
the  production  of  food. 

When  we  begin  to  use  the  water  power  of  the 
smaller  streams  and  establish  our  workshops  through 
the  country  districts,  we  shall  then  see  men  working 
and  living  under  natural  conditions,  with  an  annual 
opportunity  for  out-of-door  work ;  we  shall  see  the 
necessity  of  transporting  coal  done  away  with  and 
manufacturing  villages  free  of  smoke;  and  we  shall 
also  see  men  healed  of  their  restlessness  which  always 
causes  and  seldom  cures  their  trouble. 


296 


Man's  Laws  and  Nature's  Law 


WE  ARE  told  that  60,000  laws  were  made  in  this 
country  last  year.  This  seems  to  be  quite  a  num- 
ber for  one  people  to  bear.  But  probably  the  most 
of  them  were  improvements  on  old  rules,  and  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  them  were  probably  called 
into  being  by  the  new  conditions  that  have  arisen. 
Most  of  our  so-called  laws  are  only  rules  which  we 
lay  down  to  facilitate  action,  like  the  rules  of  the 
road  which  are  based  on  a  knowledge  of  the  acts  which 
most  often  cause  trouble.  By  establishing  such  rules 
we  promote  safety  and  ease  of  progress,  we  give  every 
man  a  very  definite  idea  of  his  rights,  we  provide  a 
standard  by  which  he  may  know  what  to  expect  from 
others. 

It  has  become  quite  fashionable,  rather  it  was  a  few- 
years  ago,  to  make  sport  of  the  laws.  Unequal  and 
incomplete  laws  which  lent  themselves  to  the  jugglery 
of  lawyers  and  the  evasion  of  the  powers  that  prey, 
became  the  butt  of  popular  ridicule.  Sometimes,  too, 
the  action  of  the  agencies  appointed  to  administer  the 
law  gave  rise  to  the  opinion  that  there  was  one  law 
for  the  rich  and  another  for  the  poor.  Or,  if  not  that, 
then  so  many  more  laws  into  which  the  rich  man  could 
wriggle  because  he  could  pay  for  it,  that  finally  he 
could  tangle  justice  in  its  own  web  and  go  free. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  laws,  and  their  intention 
is,  each  in  its  degree,  to  save  us  from  the  next  higher 
one,  if  only  we  let  it. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  ladder  is  man-made  la^c.  It 
is  a  human  product.  It  is  subject  to  all  the  fallacies 
and  faults  which  inhere  in  human  etforts.  There  prob- 
ably never  was  an  absolutely  perfect  human  statute. 

Still,  to  confess  that  does  not  indicate  that  human 
law  is  worthless.  Human  law  is  an  attempt  to  crystal- 
lize the  fruits  of  our  experience  into  rules  by  which 
others  may  benefit  by  our  experience  without  having 
to  pay  the  price  that  we  had  to  pay.     Men  found  that 

297 


FORD    IDEALS 


certain  ways  of  doing  things  wrought  hardship,  in- 
justice and  danger.  They  found  that  certain  hues  ot 
conduct  terminated  in  certain  conditions.  They  found 
that  if  the  community  pursued  a  certain  course  with 
reference  to  social  relations  or  material  possessions, 
certain  distressful  results  ensued.  So,  instead  of 
running  the  risk  of  everybody  upsetting  the  order  of 
life  while  he  was  learning  by  his  own  mistakes,  the 
community  simply  made  rules  in  which  its  experience 
was  embodied  and  which  saved  it  from  a  continual 
sutTering  of  the  same  kinds  of  disappointment  and 
pain. 

Now,  if  men  do  not  heed  man-made  laws,  if  they 
escape  the  first  barrier  which  society  itself  has  reared 
across  false  paths,  then  there  is  another  barrier — they 
will  come  in  conflict  with  economic  law. 

Economic  law  is  that  law  which  is  written  in  the 
nature  of  things.  Not  in  the  nature  of  the  human 
soul  and  mind,  but  only  in  things.  We  know  very 
little  about  it  as  yet.  If  we  knew  very  much  we  could 
write  our  knowledge  down  in  man-made  laws  and  so 
prevent  society  tumbling  headlong  every  little  while 
over  some  economic  law  which  will  doubtless  seem 
very  clear  and  simple  once  we  discover-  what  it  is. 
Many  learned  men  have  composed  books  on  political 
economy,  and  many  other  learned  men  have  composed 
other  books  on  the  same  subject  to  show  that  the 
former  books  were  wrong. 

This  law  isn't  written  in  books  at  all ;  if  it  were, 
we  should  all  know  it.  It  is  written  in  things,  and  as 
a  matter  of  fact  the  world  has  been  too  busy  getting 
the  things  to  pay  much  attention  to  the  law  of  them. 
Fundamental  in  that  law  is  the  system  of  the  earth, 
the  seasons.  Without  sowing,  no  reaping.  Wild  sow- 
ing, little  reaping.  \\'ithout  work,  little  product.  We 
have  compressed  part  of  the  law  into  a  saving  that 
"you  cannot  get  something  for  nothing."  That  ap- 
pears to  be  one  certain  rule  of  economic  law.  You 
might  evade  and  befool  man-made  law.  but  economic 
law  operates  infallibly.  But  it  isn't  limitedly  personal 
in  its  operation.  Sometimes  a  few  powerful  men 
violate  the  law  by  idle  and  unproductive  speculation, 
and  then  a  great  number  of  peojjle  who  did  not  violate 


MANS    LAWS    AND    NATURK  S    LAW 

it  at  all  are  made  to  suffer.  That  is  where  man-made 
law  will  come  in  again  when  we  know  economic  law : 
we  shall  prevent  by  law  any  man  doing  things  the 
consequences  of  which  will  be  adverse  to  people  who 
are  innocent  of  wrongdoing. 

If  you  take  it  more  limitedly  still,  we  may  say 
that  a  young  man  may  disobey  and  positively  deride 
his  father's  advice  that  he  ought  to  be  industrious. 
Well,  he  may  be  able  to  escape  his  father's  law,  but 
if  he  isn't  industrious  the  economic  law  will  get  him, 
and  it  is  a  great  deal  harder  to  deal  with. 

There  is  still  a  higher  law  which  gets  all  without 
exception — it  is  the  moral  hnv.  You  }uay  violate  man- 
made  law,  and  no  one  be  the  wiser  and,  apparently, 
no  one  the  worse.  You  may  violate  economic  law 
and  still  be  carried  through  by  the  momentum  of  so- 
ciety's economic  soundness.  But  the  moral  law  you 
can  never  evade.     You  cannot  even  break  it! 

That  may  seem  extremely  odd,  and  perhaps  un- 
true. You  may  say,  "The  moral  law  says,  'Thou  shalt 
not  lie.'  Very  well,  I  here  and  now  deliberately  utter 
a  lie.  Have  I  not  broken  that  moral  law  which  you 
say  cannot  be  broken?" 

No,  you  have  not.  The  law  stands  there  in  its 
eternal  integrity.  You  have  not  broken  it,  but  you 
have  broken  something  in  yourself  against  it.  In  con- 
flict with  the  moral  law  all  that  we  can  break  is  our- 
selves. If  we  steal,  we  break  some  bulwark  of  self- 
respect  within  us — inevitably  break  it.  If  we  lie.  we 
break  some  tissue  of  integrity  within  us.  If  we  de- 
ceive our  fellow  men,  we  break  down  the  subtle  some- 
thing that  advertises  us  as  trustworthy  to  those  about 
us.  If  we  are  always  motivated  by  narrow  selfishness, 
we  ground  the  Jiving  curretu  wlridi  connects  us  in 
social  sympath)'  with  our  fellows. 

ICvery  virtue  we  practice  is  a  battery  tilling  us  with 
])0\ver.  for  there  is  power  in  straightforwardness.  It 
gives  power  to  the  eye.  the  voice,  ;ui(l  to  the  subtle 
effluence  of  personal  influence.  .Xnd  i'ver\tliing  that 
is  not  virtuous,  but  indirect,  unclean  and  sliittv,  takes 
power  from  thi'  cnc  and  contuU'ncr  troni  the  xoici'  and 
steadiness    Ironi   the   purpose;   the   electric   sub-stances 


FORD    IDEALS 

which  flow  from  an  ill-lived  life  advertise  its  low 
estate. 

Many  men  have  escaped  man-made  law,  they  have 
escaped  economic  law — so  far,  at  least  (nobody  need 
be  too  cocksure  about  this,  for  the  end  of  the  test  has 
not  come),  but  no  man  ever  lived  without  receiving 
sentence  in  himself  upon  every  violation  of  the  moral 
law.  It  gets  us  all,  for  sentence  or  reward.  High  or 
low,  none  escape.  It  is  godlike  in  its  impartial  opera- 
tion. It  cannot  be  postponed,  nor  fought  to  a  higher 
court,  nor  bribed.  No  one  else  can  take  the  sentence 
for  us — the  law  is  there,  and  no  man  ever  so  much  as 
shook  it-a  hair's  breadth.  It  has  the  final  word,  and 
its  word  is  final. 

Now,  with  these  things  in  view,  ought  not  our 
regard  to  increase  for  the  purpose  of  man-made  law? 
Man-made  law  is  an  attempt  to  prevent  men  going  so 
far  as  to  become  liable  to  the  penalties  of  the  higher 
laws.  Eventually  the  transgressor  in  every  field  will 
be  dealt  with  by  some  law.  Some  transgressions  are 
so  great  that  they  are  dealt  with  by  all  three  laws  at 
once.  But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  if  all  had  regard  to 
the  experience  of  society  as  boiled  down  into  our 
written  statutes,  there  would  be  far  fewer  candidates 
for  the  higher  and  harder  degrees  of  discipline  and 
retribution.  Man-made  law  is  really  the  expression 
of  wiser  ones'  desire  that  those  who  come  after 
should  not  pay  too  high  a  price  to  learn  what  might 
be  learned  by  the  experience  of  others. 


300 


The  Fact  Shortage 

THE  question  of  spending  money  in  politics  is  like 
the  question  of  earning  money  in  business,  it  is  a 
matter  of  honesty.  Money  may  be  dishonestly  spent 
just  as  it  may  be  dishonestly  acquired,  and  a  great  deal 
of  it  is  being  dishonestly  spent  all  the  time,  even  out- 
side politics.  All  waste  is  dishonest,  especially  the 
waste  of  that  into  which  another's  labor  has  entered, 
or  that  out  of  which  a  good  use  might  be  obtained. 
Thus  all  appeal  to  the  extravagant  tastes  of  the  people 
is  also  dishonest,  the  tempting  of  buyers  with  gewgaws 
that  merely  "get  the  money"  and  never  give  it  equiv- 
alent in  use.  Everything  that  wastes  material,  debases 
taste,  encourages  a  flashy,  thoughtless,  spendthrift 
habit,  is  dishonest. 

Now,  spending  money  in  politics  is  partly  a  matter 
of  taste,  partly  of  conscience,  partly  of  law.  Ordinary 
personal  modesty  ought  to  prevent  a  man  spending 
his  own  money  to  gain  a  preferment  for  himself.  A 
good  colonel  would  not  think  of  buying  promotion  to 
the  rank  of  general ;  he  would  desire  to  win  that  rank 
by  the  method  of  merit.  A  lawyer  would  not  be  fit 
for  the  bench  who  would  consider  buying  his  way 
there ;  as  a  lawyer  he  would  get  more  satisfaction  out 
of  the  honor  by  having  it  bestowed  upon  him  through 
the  unbiased  judgment  of  others  as  to  his  worthiness. 
Honors  that  do  not  confer  Honor  are  of  all  things 
the  emptiest ;  they  are  like  hired  cheers  or  subsidized 
tears,  abhorrent  to  the  normal  man. 

Yet  money  is  made  to  l)e  spent  and  there  was  prob- 
ably never  a  time  in  the  world,  especially  in  this  na- 
tion, when  so  many  men  were  anxious  to  get  into  the 
spending  orgy.  Men  have  a  sort  of  blind  faith  that 
if  they  throw  enough  dollars  into  the  machine  of 
destiny  it  will  come  out  just  what  they  desire — a 
presidency,  world  chm'ch  unity,  complete  American- 
ization, or  whatever  it  may  be. 

By  all  means  let  money  be  spent  bv  those  who  have 
money  to  spare,  but  let  the  sj)en(ling  contribute  to  the 

301 


FORD    IDEALS 


general  wealth  of  the  people,  let  it  meet  some  actual 
need,  let  it  go  to  accomplish  something  more  than' 
further  glutting  the  mails  with  political  propaganda, 
or  serving  selfish  purposes. 

If  all  the  money  thus  far  spent  on  the  Presidential 
campaign  by  candidates  who  will  never  see  more  than 
the  exterior  of  the  White  House  had  been  used  to 
meet  the  great  Fact  Shortage  from  which  the  country 
suflFers,  the  benefit  to  the  country  would  have  been 
greater  than  if  all  the  aspirants  landed  in  office.     - 

This  is  a  suggestion  which  may  be  worth  consid- 
ering by  men  who  are  wondering  what  to  do  with 
their  money.  Granting  that  a  number  of  men  who 
can  never  be  President,  nor  hold  any  other  office  com- 
mensurate with  their  dignity,  are  truly  desirous  of 
serving  the  Nation,  this  suggestion  is  offered  for  their 
candid  consideration — \\'hy  not  spend  some  money  in 
relieving  the  people  from  the  Shortage  of  Faetsf  It 
is  positively  startling  to  discover  how  little  reliable 
knowledge  is  to  be  had  on  any  of  the  real  problems 
that  confront  us — not  the  speculative  problems  deal- 
ing with  untried  forms  of  social  life,  and  new  proposi- 
tions of  industrial  adjustment,  but  the  concrete  prob- 
lems having  to  do  with  wheat,  sugar,  coal,  houses,  and 
the  like. 

Sugar  is  scarce.  Sugar  is  high.  Is  it  scarce  only 
in  the  retail  store,  or  in  the  world  ?  Is  it  high  because 
it  is  really  scarce,  or  because  its  flow  is  being  held 
back  to  boost  prices  and  thus  bring  more  profit  to 
speculators?     Do  vou  know? 

(Opinions  are  useless.  (jUCsscs  solve  nothing.  De- 
nunciation docs  no  good.  The  one  thing  that  is  worth 
a  thousand  opinions  and  guesses  and  would  accomplish 
the  work  of  the  most  terrific  denunciations  is  the  Fact 
About  Sugar. 

The  fact  is  obtainable.  Some  people  sav.  '"The 
Government  ought  to  get  that  fact."  Perhaps  so.  but 
whatever  the  (Government  has  done  or  omitted  to  do, 
it  is  certain  that  the  demonstrated,  unchallengeable 
Fact  has  not  been  given  to  the  ])eople.  There  is  no 
one  really  "informed"  on  the  (|uestion;  evervbody 
seems  to  walk  in  a  haze,  as  if  men  had  as  little  con- 
trol  over  the  work  of   their  own   hands  as  over  the 


THE    FACT    SnOKTAGE 


weather.  The  sun  shines  or  it  rains ;  su^ar  goes  up 
or  down — people  regard  both  with  the  same  sort  of 
helplessness  to  change  them.  Now,  sugar  is  not  a 
principle.  It  is  not  a  theory.  It  is  not  a  mystery. 
It  is  grown,  refined  and  distributed.  It  is  absolutely 
possible  to  know  whether  it  was  grown.  It  is  abso- 
lutely possible  to  know  whether  it  was  refined.  It  is 
absolutely  possible  to  know  where  it  is  now,  why  it 
is  kept  there,  and  what  and  who  determines  the  price. 
These  are  not  deep  scientific  problems ;  they  are  not 
mysteries  nor  veiled  philosophy.  They  are  I'acts  which 
can  be  found  out.  For  an  amount  less  than  some 
candidates  have  expended  in  their  campaign  propa- 
ganda, they  could  be  brought  to  light — and  the  man 
who  would  spend  his  money  that  way  for  the  unselfish 
purpose  of  giving  the  people  some  bedrock  facts  to 
work  upon,  would  recommend  himself  for  a  position 
of  service  to  the  people  much  more  than  any  speech- 
making  or  self-advertising  campaign  could  ever  do. 

Perhaps  the  time  has  come  when  we  shall  demand 
of  candidates  preliminary  specimens  of  the  work  they 
would  do  if  elected,  the  thoroughness  and  persistence 
they  would  bring  to  the  big  (piestions. 

Does  anyone  know  how  much  coal  is  being  mined, 
or  whether  next  winter's  needs  will  be  met  ? 

Does  any  one  know  what  the  wheat  acreage  is  for 
this  year,  and  whether  in  event  of  the  promised  crop 
shortage,  as  some  say.  the  unsold  portion  of  last  year's 
crop  will  still  prove  sufficient,  as  others  say?  There 
are  two  sets  of  statements  made  upon  that  ([uestion — 
which  is  the  true  one?  or  is  the  truth  somewhere  be- 
tween them?  It  would  not  be  impossiljle  to  find  out. 
It  would  cost  money,  but  n(^t  as  nuich  as  some  cam- 
paigns are  costing. 

I'Vom  one  ])oint  of  view  it  is  a  sj)lendid  adxaiUage 
for  the  country  lo  have  fifteen  or  t\\ent\-  men  who 
openly  admit  their  ability  and  desire  to  be  President. 
It  is  splendid  that  so  manv  men  are  willing  to  serve 
the  entire  nation.  .And  the  incident  of  their  failure 
to  win  nonnnation  or  election  is  not  sufticient  reason 
for  laying  aside  so  laudable  a  desire.  Let  them  go  on 
and  serve — let  tlicm  get  to  work,  spending  theii" 
monew  using  their  executive  al)ilit\-  and  i)ro\ing  their 


.iii.i 


FORD    IDEALS 

separation  from  the  exploiting  class,  by  meeting  the 
present   Shortage  of   Facts. 

It  would  be  a  genuine  benefit  to  the  nation  if,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  candidate  showing  before  the  nomina- 
tions a  piece  of  work  of  presidential  size  and  impor- 
tance, the  defeated  candidate  after  the  elections  should 
go  ahead  and  demonstrate  some  of  the  services  he  had 
it  in  mind  to  render  had  he  been  elected. 

National  service  is  not  restricted  to  men  in  office. 
It  would  perhaps  not  be  too  much  to  say  that  much 
of  the  valuable  service  rendered  the  nation,  aside  from 
purely  executive  decision,  has  been  rendered  by  men 
out  of  office.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  a  man  out  of 
office  is  freer  to  get  at  the  truth  than  the  man  in  office. 
It  should  not  be  so,  but  often  it  is.  If  there  is  any- 
thing being  "put  over"  on  the  American  people  to- 
day in  the  matter  of  clothing,  food,  fuel  and  special 
necessaries  of  life,  it  is  being  done  under  cover  of 
darkness,  and  the  darkness  is  nothing  but  lack  of 
knowledge  which  is  a  lack  of  Facts.  The  only  light 
that  is  needed  to  drive  conspirators  against  the  people 
into  oblivion  is  the  light  of  Facts.  Merely  to  have 
the  thing  known,  to  have  the  method  exposed,  to  have 
the  Fact  itself  exploited  is  to  accomplish  what  courts 
and  investigations  and  threats  could  hardly  do. 

If  there  is  any  conspiracy  against  the  easy  access  of 
the  people  to  procurable  necessaries  of  life  today,  that 
conspiracy  proceeds  under  cover  of  such  phrases  as 
"scarcity,"  "increased  costs,"  "the  war,"  and  so  on, 
which  mean  little  or  nothing,  mere  words  that  serve 
as  "blinds."  If  there  is  no  scarcity,  if  the  charges  are 
increased  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  increase  in  costs, 
if  the  condition  is  not  due  to  the  war  but  to  the  ma- 
nipulation which  profiteers  learned  from  the  war.  Facts 
will  explode  the  whole  delusion. 

The  exploiters  of  the  people  fear  the  Facts,  which 
is  one  more  reason  why  the  aspirant  to  office  should 
show  he  is  not  in  fear  of  the  exploiters  by  showing 
the  Facts,  which  service  would  also  prove  him  to  be 
free  of  the  charge  of  exploiting.  The  Fact  is  worth 
money.  Facts  would  put  the  public  in  control  of  the 
situation.  The  main  shortage  is  a  shortage,  not  so 
much  of  necessities,  but  of  Facts. 

304 


Should  Married  Women  Work? 


THE  question  of  women  in  the  work  of  the  world 
comes  up  to  claim  attention  every  little  while, 
even  though  it  had  a  year  or  two  of  rest  during  the 
war.  It  has  been  a  very  persistent  question,  and  al- 
though its  first  character  was  industrial,  its  significance 
is  now  becoming  social.  In  earlier  and  freer  forms  of 
society  there  was  never  any  question  about  women 
working;  they  simply  worked  because  the  work  was 
there  to  do.  Sometimes  it  was  work  which  we  now 
class  as  men's  work,  but  with  a  different  meaning,  for 
in  a  former  period  all  work  was  directly  connected 
with  the  production  of  food  or  the  simpler  necessities 
of  life,  while  nowadays  we  refer  to  "work"  more  as  a 
means  of  getting  money.  Anyway,  the  women  who 
were  the  mothers  and  grandmothers  of  the  present 
mature  generation  were  not  troubled  by  the  question — 
they  solved  it  before  any  one  thought  to  ask  it ;  they 
worked. 

Women  appeared  in  industry  at  a  later  period,  that 
is,  women  working  for  money  at  labor  disconnected 
from  their  homes.  There  was  objection  to  this,  first 
by  the  people  themselves  who  fancied  it  was  some- 
w'hat  beneath  women's  dignity  to  work  for  wages  at 
anything  but  housework  or  nursing ;  and  then  the  later 
objection  from  organized  labor  that  women  were  in 
danger  of  usurping  men's  places,  or  efi"ecting  a  gen- 
eral reduction  in  wages.  These  fears  were  genuine 
at  the  time,  and  illustrate  how  little  the  accuracy  with 
which  some  tendencies  are  forecast.  The  tendency 
has  been  for  women  to  go  up  to  men's  scales  of  wages, 
as  indeed  they  should  where  they  are  producing  work 
of  equal  value.  Even  the  labor  unions,  some  branches 
of  which  very  stubbornly  resisted  the  entrance  of 
women  into  certain  trades,  have  opened  their  doors 
for  nif^mbership  on  ecjual    terms  to   women. 

Nowadays  there  is  seldom  a  question  raised  as  to 
the  propriety  of  women  supporting  themselves  by  paid 

305 


FORD    IDEALS 


labor.  In  even  the  wealthy  families  the  idea  of  rearing 
a  daughter  in  idleness  is  rapidly  dying  out,  although 
there  is  always,  of  course,  the  consideration  of  a  choice 
of  labor. 

In  fact,  it  may  be  regarded  as  settled,  and  no  ques- 
tion at  all,  that  the  girls  of  the  family  may  renounce  a 
life  of  idleness  and  become  self-supporting,  or  con- 
tributors to  the  support  of  the  home,  without  being 
even  the  slightest  the  less  womanly  for  it,  as  some  of 
the  forefathers  thought  they  \vere.  The  self-support- 
ing type  of  young  woman  has  added  a  new  strain  to 
American  femininity,  a  strain  of  wholesome  self-re- 
liance, clear-eyed  vision  of  the  facts  of  life,  and  a 
general  sanity  of  reaction.  She  has  not  been  made 
masculine ;  rather,  the  sounder  qualities  of  womanli- 
ness have  been  brought  out  in  her.  The  so-called 
"new  woman"  really  represents  womanhood  released 
from  artificial  eflfeminacy. 

But  now  comes  a  new  angle  to  the  question.  Or- 
dinarily upon  her  marriage  a  woman  stopped  working 
for  wages.  Her  sphere  thenceforth  became  the  home, 
not  that  she  worked  less,  but  her  husband  became  the 
bread-winner  while  she  became  the  home-maker.  To 
assume  the  work  of  keeping  a  house  is  not  exactly  a 
retirement  from  work,  as  every  woman  knows. 

This  was  a  division  of  labor  which  seemed  in  har- 
mony with  the  fitness  of  things,  and  which  we  are 
convinced  will  remain  the  normal  condition  in  spite 
of  instances  or  periods  of  aberration. 

We  appear  to  be  in  one  of  those  periods  now,  and 
hence  arises  in  many  quarters  the  question.  Should 
Married  Women  Work?  Employers  are  frequently 
asked  for  their  views  upon  it.  Social  workers  are 
very  outspoken  upon  it.  More  than  that,  thousands 
of  the  very  women  involved  in  the  matter  are  wonder- 
ing whether  they  are  really  the  pioneers  of  a  new  era 
or  whether  they  are  merely  the  signs  of  a  period  in 
which  many  standards  are  temporarily  disturbed.  It 
seems  pretty  true  to  say  that  however  numerous  may 
be  the  present  day  instances  of  married  women  work- 
ing, they  are  not  the  pioneers  of  a  new  condition  of 
things  in  which   it   will   be  thought   right  and  proper 

306 


SHOULD    MAKRIF.I)    WOMKN     WORK? 

that  all  married  wonien  should  wc^rk  outside  the  home 
for  wages. 

Certain  factors  are  irremovably  opposed  to  such  a 
practice  becoming  established.  There  is  the  idea  of 
Home,  for  one.  A  Home  is  a  place  inhabited,  not  an 
apartment  to  which  two  working  ])eople  come  tired 
from  their  labor,  to  rest  from  a  day's  work.  A  Home 
is  a  place  inha1)ited  by  the  spirit  of  home-making 
which  spirit  somehow  rcciuires  the  i)retty  constant 
bodily  presence  of  the  home-maker,  who  is  supremely 
the  woman. 

Then  there  is  the  idea  of  l-'amily.  Certainly  the 
intrusion  of  even  one  child  breaks  up  the  plan  of  the 
wife  going  out  to  work.  And,  not  to  repeat  the  coun- 
sel which  has  been  given  on  this  subject  from  the 
earliest  times,  who  can  separate  between  the  idea  of 
Home  and  Family? 

There  are.  of  course,  excejitional  circumstances, 
but  as  a  rule,  where  the  man  of  the  house  is  able- 
bodied,  he  should  be  the  sole  representative  of  the 
family  in  the  industrial  world,  at  least  until  his  chil- 
dren grow  up.  He  should  make  the  living  and  his 
wife  should  make  the  home. 

It  is  unpleasant  to  relate  that  while  some  married 
women  are  forced  to  work  for  their  living,  there  are 
far  too  many  who  work  merely  to  gratify  those  ex- 
travagant tastes  which  a  normal  family  income  cannot 
support. 

To  say  it  i)lainly,  the  great  majority  of  married 
women  who  work  do  so  in  order  to  buy  fancv  clothes. 
And  not  the  clothes  that  they  need,  not  necessary  de- 
cency and  tastefulness  of  covering,  but  extravagance 
of  decoration.  It  is  not  to  kee])  the  home  together  that 
they  work,  but  to  maintain  an  outside  appearance  en- 
tirely out  of  keeping  with  the  kind  and  (pialitv  of  tiieir 
home.  It  is  amazing  to  see  the  peacocks  that  emerge 
from  commonplace  cottages,  and  to  see  the  ridiculous 
excess  of  fnier\-  which  can  onl\-  ])e  accounted  for  bv 
an  excess  income  re])resented  by  the  wife  at  work.  Is 
there  anything  more  pitiful,  more  disregardful  of  the 
real  dignity  and  beauty  of  life  than  that  a  woman 
should  choose  menial  labor  through  the  day  in  order 

307 


FORD    IDEALS 


that,  though  tired,  she  may  shine  in  cheap  imitation 
sillts  and  plumes  an  hour  or  two  at  night? 

People  sometimes  argue  that  if  these  married 
women  work,  they  at  least  contribute  to  production. 
It  is  a  question  whether  they  do  or  not.  Indeed,  it  is 
very  doubtful  that  they  do.  For,  whatever  their  labor 
may  contribute,  the  use  they  make  of  their  wages  is 
to  encourage  a  number  of  nonessential  industries  that 
cater  to  cheap  tastes,  and  thus  they  destroy  by  their 
money  what  they  create  with  their  labor. 

There  are  doubtless  cases,  heroic  cases,  where  the 
married  woman  goes  out  to  labor  to  gain  some  substan- 
tial benefit  for  the  home  which  otherwise  would  not 
be  had.  There  is  no  danger  of  these  cases  ever  being 
confused  w^ith  the  others.  Little  more  is  needed  than 
a  glance  at  the  face  of  a  wife  who  works  to  see 
whether  her  reasons  are  high  and  serious,  or  whether 
they  are  selfish  and  trivial. 

These  serious  ones  who  know  all  that  they  are 
leaving,  and  who  are  really  the  victims  of  a  situation 
instead  of  the  exploiters  of  a  situation — these  are  the 
ones  to  whom  everyone  would  listen  if  they  should 
give  their  own  hearts'  thought  about  the  advisability 
of  married  women  working.  There  is  no  doubt  as  to 
what  they  would  say. 

As  a  broad  rule,  a  great  deal  can  safely  be  sacri- 
ficed to  preserve  the  spirit  of  Home.  There  are  many 
impressively  dressed  women  whose  homes  are  not  im- 
pressive. The  best  setting  any  woman  ever  had  is  her 
own  home. 

The  cost  of  living  is  not  so  high  as  the  cost  of 
pretending  to  live  better  than  one  really  can.  The 
cost  of  anything  real  is  not  quite  so  high,  in  compari- 
son with  the  values  possessed,  as  is  the  cost  of  pre- 
tense. Least  of  all  should  any  sacrifice  of  substantial 
values,  such  as  the  Home  atmosphere,  be  made  for 
mere  pretense. 


308 


The  Story  of  Jones 


THE  story  is  told  of  a  man  named  Jones  who,  with 
others,  was  shipwrecked.  They  were  hoping  to 
be  saved  by  main  strength  at  the  pumps,  keeping  the 
hulk  afloat.  To  stimulate  their  energies,  they  began 
to  ask  one  another  what  they  were  pumping  for,  and 
one  by  one  each  man  named  the  dearest  object  in  his 
life.  One  man  was  pumping  that  his  aged  mother 
might  not  be  deprived  of  her  only  son ;  another,  that 
his  wife  might  not  be  a  widow ;  another,  that  his  chil- 
dren might  not  be  left  fatherless.  At  last  the  question 
came  around  to  Jones — "What  are  you  pumping  for, 
Jones?"    And  Jones  replied,  "I'm  pumping  for  Jones." 

In  a  way  Jones  was  right,  and  in  a  way  he  was 
wrong.  Every  stroke  of  his  arm  at  the  pump  was  for 
others  as  well  as  himself.  Every  gallon  of  water  he 
ejected  from  the  leaky  hulk  bought  an  added  chance 
of  life  for  his  companions  as  well  as  himself.  Every 
strain  of  his  muscle  which  he  thought  was  solely  for 
Jones,  was  for  Smith  and  White  and  the  rest.  He 
could  not  keep  his  part  of  the  deck  afloat  without 
helping  to  keep  the  whole  ship  afloat. 

They  all  came  safely  ashore,  but  the  man  who 
saved  least  was  Jones. 

A  man  may  work  as  selfishly  as  he  pleases ;  he 
may  rule  out  of  his  mind  all  thought  or  intention  or 
desire  to  do  something  for  someone  else,  but  he  will 
find  in  the  end  that  Nature  has  tricked  him ;  he  has 
not  been  permitted  to  live  for  himself  alone;  his  very 
works  of  selfishness  have  been  made  to  serve  others : 
he  has  only  deluded  himself,  robbed  himself  of  the 
higher  and  more  satisfactory  rewards  which  come 
from  including  the  good  of  others  in  one's  own  good. 

Suppose  a  man  should  deliberately  set  out  to  be 
absolutely  selfish,  the  benefactor  of  none  and  the  bene- 
ficiary of  all.  He  could  not  do  it.  There  is  no  possible 
system  upon  which  he  could  organize  his  life  in  total 
selfishness.     He  covild  not  keep  a  cow.  without  serving 

309 


FORD    IDEALS 


the  COW  by  milking  her.  He  could  not  raise  enough 
grain  for  his  own  need  without  serving  the  seed  in  its 
life  destiny  and  opening  the  very  soil  of  the  earth  her- 
self to  a  fuller  expression  and  value.  He  could  not 
breathe  without  dehghting  the  cells  of  his  lungs  and 
making  his  very  blood  glad.  A  man  who  would  be 
absolutely  selfish  would  have  no  outlet  but  to  lie  down 
and  die,  even  then  Nature  would  outwit  him,  for  she 
would  take  the  very  materials  of  his  body  and  dis- 
tribute them  in  one  form  or  another  to  the  plant  world. 

Everyone  knows,  however,  that  there  are  selfish 
men  in  the  world — that  is,  men  who  are  selfish  in  their 
intention.  They  don't  mean  to  help  anyone  else.  They 
would  not  go  out  of  their  way  to  advance  another's 
good.  They  may  even  flatter  themselves  that  they 
are  going  through  life  on  the  narrow  gauge  line  of 
"Every  man  for  himself,  and  the  devil  take  the  hind- 
most." But  they  are  simply  the  dupes  of  a  fallacy. 
The  baker  may  bake  bread  and  have  no  other  motive 
than  his  own  profit.  Yet  others  are  fed  by  his  bread, 
but  he  is  not  himself  fed  by  the  sense  of  having 
helped  his  fellow  men.  The  farmer  may  till  his  land 
with  no  thought  in  his  mind  but  the  money  profit  of 
it ;  the  thronging  cities  are  supplied  just  the  same  even 
though  the  farmer  has  been  cheated  out  of  a  finer 
harvest  than  can  be  cut  with  a  scythe.  The  surgeon 
may  go  home  hugging  his  fee,  but  he  has  saved  a 
home  from  disruption  by  the  saving  of  a  threatened 
life.  A  manufacturer  may  invent  and  administer  and 
expand  his  business,  with  no  other  conscious  object 
than  to  amass  a  great  fortune,  but  he  is  providing 
jobs  for  workmen  ;  he  is  really  working  for  his  work- 
men, although  he  does  not  realize  it.  He  would  get 
a  double  profit  if  he  only  knew  that  secret. 

\Vc  cannot  do  anything  which  brings  us  the  right 
to  live,  without  extending  some  service  which  helps 
others  to  live.  Narrow  people  may  think  that  they 
can.  but  wise  old  Nature  lets  them  play  with  the  idea 
even  while  it  is  being  disproved. 

There  was  a  man  in  a  Michigan  village  who  al- 
ways voted  against  public  improvements,  especially 
against  ade([uate  fire  protection.  The  time  came  when 
he   constructed   some   valuable   buildings    which   held 

310 


THE   STORY   OF   JOXES 

an  inflammable  stock.  Then  he  demanded  of  the 
village,  that  as  his  enterprise  redounded  to  the  com- 
mercial importance  of  that  place,  fire  protection  ought 
to  be  provided  for  it.  He  wanted  it  only  for  himself, 
but  in  order  to  give  it  to  him,  it  had  to  be  given  to 
all  the  residents.  But  that  man  did  not  have  in  his 
own  heart  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  he  had  made 
every  other  villager's  home  safer. 

A  man  may  be  selfishly  concerned  for  the  ])ro- 
tection  of  his  own  children  from  disease,  but  he  can- 
not quiet  that  concern  without  providing  for  town 
sanitation,  pure  water,  healthful  school  buildings  and 
public  health  rules — and  when  he  achieves  these  for 
the  protection  of  his  own  children,  he  will  discover 
that  he  has  given  them  to  every  other  child  in  the 
comnumity. 

Pumping  is  the  weariest  work  in  the  world  when 
it  is  done  for  Jones  alone ;  and  if  it  is  for  Jones  alone, 
the  time  will  come  at  the  shriveled  end  of  his  life 
when  he  will  wonder  if  it  was  worth  the  effort.  1'he 
things  we  seek  for  ourselves  alone  dry  up  and  lose 
their  flavor  sooner  than  any  others.  In  999  cases  out 
of  a  thousand — yes,  in  all  but  one  case  out  of  a  mil- 
lion, the  person  who  is  "tired  of  life"  is  not  tired  of 
life  at  all,  but  tired  of  living  solely  for  himself. 

The  action  of  life  ui)on  us,  if  we  have  the  least 
wisdom  to  react  to  it,  is  to  draw  us  out  of  ourselves 
into  a  sense  of  human  unity.  1  lere  is  a  big.  crude, 
selfish  hulk  of  a  boy.  His  motto  is  "(iet."  There  is 
something  almost  barbarous  in  his  self-cenleredness. 
Human  society  is  as  yet  an  unborn  idea  with  him. 
Mankind,  if  he  visualizes  it  t(^  his  mind  at  all,  is  but 
a  collection  of  beings  wlio  possess  something  which 
he  nnist  get  for  himself  bv  hook  or  crook,  lie  is  an 
initial  product  of  nature,  the  raw  material  of  hu- 
manity, a  man  in  the  rough. 

Then  Nature  wakens  him  to  love  a  girl,  a  girl  who 
attracts  him — ])erhaps  he  does  not  detlne  it  —by  her 
unsellishness,  by  her  regard  for  the  riglits  and  teel- 
ings  and  interests  of  others.  Ah  !  he  is  no  longer  the 
self-centered  cub  that  he  was;  he  linds  himsi'lf  think- 
ing day  and  night  of  some  one  else,  and  ])laiming  \\a\  s 
to  i)lease  her.      .W'llnre  has  divided  him  into  two,  en- 


FORD   IDEALS 

larged  and  amplified  him,  widened  the  bounds  of  his 
humanity. 

But  even  that  love  may  be  tinged  with  the  desire 
to  possess,  so  when  he  has  won  the  girl.  Nature  sends 
him  a  babe.  He  is  now  divided  by  three.  Perhaps  in 
time  he  may  be  divided  by  four  or  five.  He  is  no 
longer  working  for  himself,  he  is  working  for  a  fam- 
ily. He  sees  other  men  through  his  own  experiences 
and  gradually  widens  his  sympathies  and  insight — his 
sense  of  humanity-at-large. 

That  is  the  strange  arithmetic  of  nature ;  it  multi- 
plies by  division.  It  is  the  good  which  we  cut  in  two 
and  share  with  another  that  doubles  in  value  and 
brings  good  to  us.  A  man  cannot  be  unselfish  without 
serving  himself  best.  "He  that  loseth  his  life  shall 
find  it." 

The  young  man  meets  this  problem  at  the  very 
threshold  of  his  active  life.  What  work  shall  he 
choose?  What  shall  his  life  motto  be?  What  shall 
be  the  reward  he  seeks  ? 

He  will  find  at  the  very  outset  that  the  work  which 
promises  him  most  is  that  which  serves  most  people. 
If  he  sets  out  to  serve  himself,  he  will  be  his  own  pay- 
master, and  he  will  be  restricted  to  payment  in  the 
worthless  coin  of  his  own  selfish  spirit. 

It  is  just  there  that  selfishness  loses.  Gain  it  ever 
so  much,  it  misses  the  very  element  which  gives  value 
to  gain.  Some  gains  are  very  bitter ;  they  are  like 
heaped-up  ashes ;  they  are  flavorless  and  colorless  be- 
fore they  are  well  in  hand.  They  have  not  the  stamp 
of  social  approval  on  them,  and  lacking  that  stamp 
they  are  counterfeit  and  worthless. 

Jones  saved  his  carcass.  He  lost  his  character. 
Thereafter  it  little  mattered  'what  he  gained  or  lost 
until  he  had  retrieved  that  first  imperishable  wealth. 


312 


What  It  Costs  for  War 


IT  COSTS  money  to  run  the  United  States,  but  not 
so  much  money  as  the  people  pay  for  that  purpose. 
....  If  a  politician  should  say  that  you  would  pass  it 
over  with  the  thought  that  he  was  only  charging  his 
political  opponents  with  extravagance.  But  that  is 
not  the  nature  of  the  statement  made  on  this  page.  It 
has  nothing  to  do  with  politics,  nothing  to  do  with 
politicians,  nothing  to  do  with  any  propaganda  what- 
ever. On  the  basis  of  figures  prepared  in  a  department 
of  the  Government  of  the  United  States — a  discussion 
of  which  appears  elsewhere  in  this  issue — the  state- 
ment is  made  that  more  money — much  more  money — 
is  paid  by  the  people  than  is  needed  actually  to  run 
the  United  States  Government. 

How  much  more?  About  fourteen  times  as  much. 
That  is  to  say,  if  you  take  the  budget  for  the  fiscal 
year  which  ended  May  1,  1920— the  whole  sum  being 
$5,868.005,706 — vou  mav  leave  the  billion  figures  stand 
($5,000,000,000)'.  and  then  if  you  will  divide  the  mil- 
lion figures,  the  $868,005,706' which  follow  that  big 
"5,"  you  will  still  have  more  than  is  actually  spent  in 
the  real  work  of  government.  You  haven't  diminished 
the  billions  at  all.  you  have  scarcely  cut  the  millions 
in  two,  and  yet  the  billions  and  half  of  the  millions 
represent  the  amount  that  is  not  necessary  for  the 
conductive,  civilized  functions  of  government. 

Some  people  are  dazed  when  they  see  figures.  This 
is  a  form  of  blindness  which  permits  the  political  and 
economic  sharpers  to  get  the  better  of  them.  The 
people  would  do  well  in  their  own  interests  if  they 
would  become  accustomed  to  figures.  Just  set  down 
on  a  piece  of  paper  the  sum.  $5,868,005,706.  And 
then  beneath  it  set  down  the  sum  $406,384,443.  The 
smaller  sum  represents  all  that  is  spent  on  the  real 
work  of  government.  Do  a  little  work  in  subtraction 
and  you  will  find  that  the  difference  is  $5,461,621,263 
— and  this  is  the  amount  which  we  s])en(l  annually  for 


FORD    IDEALS 


what  we  call  government  and  is  not  government  at  all. 

What  do  we  mean  by  Government?  Well,  we  mean 
the  public  business  of  the  nation.  There  is  Congress, 
the  legislative  body ;  we  must  have  it  and  it  costs 
money,  but  its  cost  is  hardly  a  drop  in  the  bucket 
compared  with  the  cost  of  other  national  responsibili- 
ties. Then  there  are  the  President,  the  White  House 
with  its  domestic  and  official  staff,  the  Federal  courts 
and  officers  and  penal  institutions — sometimes  dis- 
tinguished by  the  terms  executive  and  judicial  depart- 
ments. And  then  there  are  the  various  administrative 
departments  organized  for  the  purpose  of  managing 
the  multitude  of  interests  which  every  nation  has — 
law  enforcement,  foreign  relations,  the  coinage,  cus- 
toms, public  lands,  relations  between  the  states  of  the 
Union.  There  is  also  the  expense  incident  to  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  as  a  special  bit  of  territory  assigned 
to  the  use  of  the  Federal  Government. 

Now  all  this,  from  President  down  to  United  States 
Marshall,  costs  only  $181,087,225.  These  are  the 
primary  functions  of  government.  Compare  their  cost 
with  the  total. 

The  Post  Office,  Land  Office,  Panama  Canal  and 
other  public  departments  are  not  included  because  they 
are  self-sustaining;  the  work  which  they  do  and  the 
service  which  they  render  bring  in  enough  money  to 
pay  their  expenses.  Instead  of  living  by  taxes  they 
live  by  fees  for  the  service  rendered,  as  when  you 
give  two  cents  to  have  your  letter  carried. 

Besides  these  there  are  necessary  works,  including 
the  improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors,  the  construc- 
tion of  public  buildings,  the  reclamation  of  waste  lands, 
the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  national  parks, 
which  every  prosperous  nation  desires  to  see  carried 
forward,  and  these  cost  the  sum  of  $168,203,557. 

Not  to  daze  anyone  with  more  figures,  look  now 
at  a  comparatively  smaller  amount,  namely.  $57,093.- 
661.  It  is  the  smallest  amount  yet  used.  And  what 
is  it  for?  It  is  for  all  the  research,  development  and 
educational  work  which  the  government  is  doing.  The 
Department  of  Agriculture  (and  remember  that  our 
farm  products  are  worth  more  than  25  Billions  an- 
nually) ;  our  Bureau  of  Mines  (and  we  produce  each 


WHAT   IT    COSTS    FOR    WAR 


year  metals  and  minerals  valued  at  Six  Billions)  ;  our 
highly  useful  Bureau  of  Standards  which  keeps  us 
straight  with  regard  to  the  real  values  and  uses  of 
the  more  than  12  billions  of  dollars'  worth  of  raw  ma- 
terials that  enter  into  our  manufactured  products  every 
year;  our  Bureau  of  Fisheries;  our  government  re- 
search into  problems  of  health,  housing,  fuel,  gasoline 
and  every  big  pressing  i)roblem  that  vitally  relates  to 
the  life  of  the  people — all  this  real  work  of  advance- 
ment and  human  benefit  is  supported  to  the  extent  of 
$57,09v3.661.  Just  look  at  it  as  a  matter  of  percentages. 
Cast  your  eye  again  upon  that  first  big  total — $5,868.- 
005.706.  Now  the  sum  spent  on  the  official  functions 
of  government,  from  the  President  to  the  most  ob- 
scure Federal  clerk,  represents  a  little  more  than  three 
per  cent  of  that  sum.  The  public  works  of  the  gov- 
ernment, represented  in  rivers,  harbors,  national  i)arks 
and  Federal  buildings,  account  for  another  three  ])er 
cent ;  while  research,  education  and  development  is 
sujjported  by  the  munificent  proportion  of  one  j^er 
cent ! 

There  you  have  seven  pcv  cent  of  your  govern- 
ment expenditures  accounted  for.  or  seven  cents  of 
your  government  dollar. 

Where  does  the  other  93  per  cent  go?  Where  docs 
$5,461,621,263  out  of  the  sum  of  $5. 868.005. 70()  go? 
Out  of  b^ive  P)illion  some  odd  dollars,  bow  does  il 
come  that  onlv  the  "some  odd"  dollars  go  for  straight 
govermnent  expenses?  ^^'here  docs  the  b'ive  Billion 
go? 

Listen  !  These  are  t'lgiu'cs  prepared  in  a  govern- 
ment department  at  Washington.  The\-  are  not  the 
ligures  of  anv  proi)agan(list.  ^'on  can  get  the  tigures 
for  yourself  if  von  want  them.  /\nd  the  lignres  will 
show  you  this — 

77/(7/  ^''.•^  /rr  rent  of  tlic  r.vf'CiKliliircs  (>f  the  I'liilcil 
Sfdtcs  ('•trrcnnnciit  arc  hccauy-^  cf.  iuul  in  the  iiitcrcsf 
of,   War! 

The  bills  of  our  nation.'il  ll()U-^ek^H'pi!lg  read  this 
wa\  :      IV'Uce,  seven  pi'r  cent  ;  \\  ai".  ^X-i  per  cent. 

"(  )li,"  sa\'s  someone,  "tlic  wai"  liL;ure--  arc  so  high 
because    we   ba\'c    ]\\<\    Imi^lied    a    war." 

.\o!      Keceiil   .'111(1  ])re\iou^   war  cxpeii'-c^  comprise 


FORD   IDEALS 


67.8  per  cent,  and  the  annual  upkeep  of  army  and 
navy  represent  the  other  25  per  cent. 

We  are  paying  for  wars — all  the  wars — the  United 
States  ever  fought.  That  is,  we  are  not  paying  for 
them,  for  we  are  not  able ;  we  are  only  paying  interest 
on  them.  The  Public  Debt  is  very  largely  the  debt  in- 
curred by  war.  But  no  one  ever  speaks  of  paying  the 
Public  Debt.  All  that  the  country  can  do  is  to  pay 
interest  on  it. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  protection  is  one  of  the 
functions  of  government,  just  as  much  as  legislation 
or  administration  is.  But  try  to  realize  the  proportion 
which  this  item  of  protection  has  assumed — 93  per 
cent !  It  would  be  worth  it,  if  it  were  necessary.  But 
is  it  necessary  in  a  civilized  world  ? — or  can  it  be  called 
a  civilized  world  in  which  such  a  tax  on  safety  is 
necessary?  If  every  family  were  compelled  to  spend 
93  per  cent  of  its  income  to  save  itself  from  violence, 
living  on  the  other  seven  per  cent,  could  that  family 
be  said  to  be  living  in  a  civilized  community? 

Someone  is  benefiting  by  that  93  per  cent.  Some 
influence  has  been  brought  to  bear  everywhere  to  cause 
this  great  and  continuous  outpouring  of  wealth,  gen- 
eration after  generation,  in  a  single  direction  to  con- 
tinue. The  nations  have  been  tricked  into  a  situation 
which  the  nations  themselves  could  break  up — which 
the  people  themselves  would  break  up — if  the  enormity 
of  the  fact  were  only  made  clear. 

Perhaps  if  our  government  should  spend  more  than 
seven  per  cent  on  the  civilizing  and  constructive  func- 
tions, these  might  in  time  bring  so  much  enlightenment 
and  prosperity  as  to  crowd  out  the  other.  There  is  a 
strong  movement  afoot  in  that  direction,  and  it  may 
be  the  movement  which  is  going  to  show  up  war  from 
another  effective  angle  and  perhaps  indicate  those 
whose  interest  is  to  foment  war. 


Paying  for  Greed's  Mistakes 


SOONER  or  later  we  pay  for  the  follies  of  our 
past.  A  great  deal  of  the  cry  about  our  trans- 
portation difficulties  is  due  to  ovir  past  sins  in  this 
respect.  This  is  not  always  understood :  people  are 
led  to  believe  that  something  suddenly  has  gone  wrong. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  has  happened.  The  mistaken 
and  foolish  things  we  did  years  ago  are  just  overtaking 
us  and  collecting  their  due.  At  the  beginning  of  rail- 
way transportation  in  the  United  States,  the  people 
had  to  be  taught  its  use,  just  as  they  had  to  be  taught 
the  use  of  the  telephone.  Also,  the  new  railroads  had 
to  make  business  in  order  to  keep  themselves  solvent. 
And  because  railway  financing  began  in  one  of  the 
rottenest  periods  of  our  business  history,  a  number 
of  practices  were  established  as  precedents  which  have 
influenced  railway  work  more  or  less  ever  since. 

One  of  the  first  things  to  be  done  was  to  throttle 
all  other  methods  of  transportation.  There  was  the 
beginning  of  a  splendid  canal  system  in  this  country 
and  a  great  movement  for  canalization  was  in  the 
height  of  its  enthusiastic  strength,  when  the  railroad 
companies  bought  out  the  canal  companies  and  let  the 
canals  fill  up  and  choke  with  weeds  and  refuse.  All 
over  the  eastern  and  in  parts  of  the  middle  western 
states  are  the  remains  of  this  network  of  internal 
waterways.  Iliey  are  being  restored  now  as  rapidly 
as  possible;  they  are  being  linked  together;  various 
commissions,  public  and  private,  liave  seen  the  vision 
of  a  complete  system  of  waterwavs  serving  all  parts 
of  the  country,  and,  thanks  to  their  efforts  and  per- 
sistence and  faith,  j)r()gress  is  being  made. 

That  was  one  folly  which  the  advent  of  railway 
transportation   forced  ui)on  tlie  country. 

But  there  was  another.  This  was  the  svstem  ot 
making  the  haul  as  long  as  possible.  .Anyone,  who  is 
familiar  with  the  exposin"es  which  resulted  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  Interstate  C Oiniuerce  Cionimission.  knows 


FORD    IDEALS 


what  is  meant  by  this.  There  was  a  period  when  rail 
transport  was  not  regarded  as  the  servant  of  the  trav- 
eling, manufacturing  and  commercial  publics,  but  when 
it  regarded  itself  as  a  Moloch  to  be  served  by  all  these. 
Business  was  treated  as  if  it  existed  for  the  benefit  of 
the  railways. 

During  this  period  of  folly,  it  was  not  good  rail- 
roading to  get  goods  from  their  shipping  point  to 
their  destination  by  the  most  direct  line  possible,  but 
to  keep  them  on  the  road  as  long  as  possible,  send  them 
around  the  longest  way,  give  as  many  connecting  lines 
as  possible  a  piece  of  the  profit,  and  let  the  public 
stand  the  resulting  loss  of  time  and  money.  That  was 
once  counted  good  railroading.  It  has  not  entirely 
passed  out  of  practice  today. 

One  of  the  great  changes  in  our  economic  life  to 
which  this  railroad  policy  contributed  was  the  cen- 
tralization of  certain  activities,  not  because  centraliza- 
tion was  necessary,  nor  because  it  contributed  more 
to  the  well-being  of  the  people,  but  because,  among 
other  things,  it  made  double  business  for  the  railroads. 

Take  those  two  staples,  meat  and  grain,  for  ex- 
ample. If  you  look  at  the  maps  which  the  packing 
houses  put  out,  and  see  where  the  cattle  are  drawn 
from  ;  and  then  if  you  consider  that  the  cattle,  when 
converted  into  food,  are  hauled  again  by  the  same 
railways  right  back  to  the  place  where  they  came  from, 
you  will  get  some  sidelight  on  the  transportation  prob- 
lem and  the  price  of  meat. 

Take  also  the  matter  of  grain.  Every  reader  of 
advertisements  knows  where  the  great  flour  mills  of 
the  country  are  located.  And  they  probably  know 
also  that  where  the  great  mills  are  located  is  not  rep- 
resentative at  all  of  the  sections  where  all  the  grain  of 
the  United  States  is  raised.  There  are  staggering 
((uantities  of  grain,  thousands  of  trainloads,  hauled 
uselessly  long  distances,  and  then  in  the  form  of  floui 
hauled  back  again  long  distances  to  the  states  and 
sections  where  the  grain  was  raised — a  burdening  ot 
the  railroads  which  is  of  no  benefit  to  the  communi- 
ties where  the  grain  originated,  nor  to  any  one  else 
except  the  monopolistic  mills  and  the  railroads.  Tlie 
railroads  can  always  do  a  bii"  business  without  helping 


PAYING    FOR    r.RKIil)  S    MISTAKES 

the  business  of  the  country  at  all ;  they  can  always  be 
engaged  in  just  such  useless  hauling.  On  meat  and 
grain  and  perhaps  on  cotton,  too,  the  transportation 
burden  could  be  cut  in  half,  yes,  reduced  by  more  than 
half,  by  the  preparation  of  the  product  for  use  before 
it  is  shijjped  at  all.  If  a  coal  comnnmity  mined  coal  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  then  sent  it  by  railway  to  Michigan 
or  Wisconsin  to  be  screened,  and  then  hauled  back 
again  to  Pennsylvania  for  use,  it  would  not  be  much 
sillier  than  the  hauling  of  Texas  beef  alive  to  Chicago, 
there  to  be  killed,  and  then  shipped  back  dead  to 
Texas;  or  the  hauling  of  Kansas  grain  to  Minnesota, 
there  to  be  ground  in  the  mills  and  hauled  back  again 
as  flour. 

It  is  good  business  for  the  railroads,  but  it  is  l)ad 
business  for  business.  One  angle  of  the  transporta- 
tion problem  to  which  too  few  men  are  paying  any 
attention  is  this  useless  hauling  away  and  hauling  back 
of  material  which  should  be  hauled  only  once.  If  the 
problem  were  tackled  from  the  point  of  ridding  th<' 
railroads  of  their  useless  hauls,  we  might  discover 
that  we  are  in  better  shai)e  than  we  think  to  take  care 
of  the  legitimate  transj^orlation  business  of  the  country. 

In  commodities  like  coal  it  is  necessary  that  it  be 
hauled  from  where  it  is  to  where  it  is  needed.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  raw  materials  of  industry — they 
nnist  be  hauled  from  the  place  where  nature  has  stored 
them  to  the  place  where  there  are  j^eople  ready  to  work 
them.  And  as  these  raw  materials  are  not  often  found 
assembled  in  one  section,  a  considerable  amount  of 
transportation  to  a  central  assembling  ])lace  is  neces- 
sary. The  coal  comes  from  one  section,  the  copper 
from  another,  the  iron  from  another,  the  wood  from 
another — thev  nmsl  all  be  brought  together. 

P)Ut  wherever  it  is  possil)le  a  policy  of  cciitrali/.a- 
tion  ought  to  be  adoi)ted.  We  need  instead  of  mam- 
moth flour  mills  at  one  corner  of  the  country,  a  multi- 
tude of  smaller  mills  distributed  through  all  the  sec- 
lions  where  grain  is  grown.  \\  herever  it  is  possible, 
the  section  that  ])ro(luces  llu'  raw  material  ought  to 
])ro(luce  also  llie  hnished  product.  (  ii^ain  should  be 
ground  to  Hour  wJiere  it  is  grown.  A  hog  growing 
counlr\-   should   not    e.\poi-l    hogs,   l)Ut    l)orl^.   li;ims  and 

.U9 


FORD    IDEALS 

bacon.  The  cotton  mills  ought  to  be  near  the  cotton 
fields. 

This  is  not  a  revolutionary  idea.  In  a  sense,  it  is 
a  reactionary  one.  It  does  not  suggest  anything  new ; 
it  suggests  something  that  is  very  old.  This  is  the 
way  the  country  did  things  before  we  fell  into  the 
habit  of  carting  everything  around  a  few  thousand 
miles  and  adding  the  cartage  to  the  consumer's  bill. 

This  idea  is  not  advanced  solely  for  its  relation  to 
the  transportation  problem — although  it  would  bring 
inestimable  relief  there — but  also  for  its  effect  on  our 
life  generally.  Our  communities  ought  to  be  more 
complete  in  themselves.  They  ought  not  to  be  unnec- 
essarily dependent  on  railway  transportation.  Out 
of  what  they  produce  they  should  supply  their  own 
needs  and  ship  the  surplus.  And  how  can  they  do 
this  unless  they  have  the  means  of  taking  their  raw 
materials,  like  grain  and  cattle,  and  changing  them  into 
finished  products?  If  private  enterprise  does  not  yield 
these  means,  the  co-operation  of  farmers  can.  The 
chief  injustice  sustained  by  the  farmer  today  is  that, 
being  the  greatest  producer,  he  is  prevented  from  be- 
ing also  the  greatest  merchandiser,  because  he  is  com- 
pelled to  sell  to  those  who  put  his  products  into  mer- 
chantable form.  If  he  could  change  his  grain  into 
flour,  his  cattle  into  beef  and  his  hogs  into  hams  and 
bacon,  not  only  would  he  receive  the  fuller  profit  of 
his  product,  but  he  would  render  his  near-by  communi- 
ties more  independent  of  railway  exigencies,  and 
thereby  improve  the  transportation  system  by  reliev- 
ing it  of  the  burden  of  his  unfinished  product. 

The  thing  is  not  only  reasonable  and  practicable, 
but  it  is  becoming  absolutely  necessary.  More  than 
that,  it  is  done  in  many  places.  But  it  will  not  register 
its  full  effect  on  the  transportation  situation  and  upon 
the  cost  of  living  until  it  is  done  more  widely  and  in 
more  kinds  of  materials. 


Administration  Versus 
Government 


IT  WOULD  be  a  beneficial  act  if  someone  could  get 
it  noised  among  the  people  that  there  is  to  be  no 
change  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States  this 
year  or  next,  but  only  a  change  in  its  administration. 
One  would  almost  be  led  to  think,  by  some  of  the 
statements  that  are  being  issued  and  some  of  the  prom- 
ises that  are  being  made,  that  a  most  revolutionary 
change  is  coming  and  that  the  country  is  to  swing  off 
on  a  path  entirely  new  and  untried  before. 

The  Old  Ship  of  State  is  going  to  run  as  usual, 
but  there  will  be  a  new  First  Mate.  And  he  will  not 
be  able  to  upset  the  winds,  nor  reverse  the  ocean  cur- 
rents, nor  change  the  position  of  the  stars — the  best 
he  can  do  will  be  to  make  things  shipshape  and  steer 
a  safe  course. 

The  Government  is  not  going  to  change,  but  only 
some  of  the  chief  men  on  duty  there. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  is  an  estab- 
lished institution;  it  might  be  just  as  well  to  have  that 
understood.  The  Government,  in  its  personnel,  is  not 
the  United  States  by  any  means ;  it  is  only  a  committee 
of  citizens,  so  to  speak,  who  have  been  selected  to  look 
after  the  public  affairs  of  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States. 

The  affairs  which  they  shall  handle  and  the  manner 
in  which  they  shall  handle  them  are  all  set  forth  in 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  While  we  are 
about  it,  it  might  be  just  as  well  if  it  were  very  clearly 
known  that  underneath  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  is  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
underneath  the  Constitution  is  the  great  mass  of  105 
million   Americans. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  .States  is  written 
on  paper.  It  was  written  a  long  time  ago.  The 
original  copy  is  kept  under  lock  and  key  at  Washing- 


FORD    IDEALS 

ton.  But  even  if  that  copy  were  destroyed,  the  Con- 
stitution would  not  be  lost,  because  it  is  written  upon 
the  heart  and  mind  of  the  people  who  compose  our 
nation. 

The  Constitution  was  not  handed  down  from 
heaven  and  no  one  has  ever  said  it  was  a  complete  and 
perfect  instrument,  although  there  is  none  nearer  per- 
fect in  the  world.  It  has  this  in  its  favor,  however, 
that  under  its  provisions  there  has  developed  on  this 
continent  a  type  of  national  life  of  which  none  need 
be  ashamed,  for  which  none  need  be  apologetic. 

This  paper  is  a  social  contract  to  which  you  and 
105,000,000  other  persons  agree  for  the  purpose  of 
regulating  our  lives  together.  We  agree  on  our  rights, 
we  agree  on  our  duties,  w^e  write  our  agreement  down, 
we  appoint  men  with  certain  powers  to  become  cus- 
todians of  the  agreement  to  see  that  its  terms  are 
observed  and  to  perform  other  duties  with  reference 
to  all  of  us  ;  and  there  you  have  the  Government,  based 
on   the   Constitution. 

Several  times  in  the  more  than  fourteen  decades 
since  the  Constitution  was  first  written,  it  has  been 
changed,  not,  however,  to  undo  anything  it  had  done, 
but  to  do  something  it  did  not  foresee.  That  is,  the 
details  of  the  Constitution  have  been  somewhat  en- 
larged ;  the  spirit  of  it  has  not  been  changed. 

Within  the  Constitution  itself  are  described  the 
methods  by  which  it  may  be  amended.  It  is  one  of 
the  marks  of  the  nobility  of  this  document  that  it  has, 
as  it  were,  an  open  side  looking  toward  progress.  Its 
makers  did  not  regard  it  as  a  fence,  but  as  a  founda- 
tion. 

So.  whenever  anyone  feels  that,  there  is  a  defect 
that  goes  deeper  than  government  administration  he 
is  free  to  suggest  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution, 
and  if  he  can  get  a  sufficient  number  of  states  to  agree, 
the  amendment  will  be  made. 

But  there  are  certain  changes  advocated  today 
which  never  could  be  made  because  to  do  so  would  be 
to  destroy  the  principle  of  the  Constitution  itself.  It 
goes  without  saying  that  if  anyone  should  propose  an 
amendment  which  would  destroy  a  man's  right  in 
what  his  labor  has  produced,  and  if  such  an  amend- 

322 


ADMINISTRATION    VERSUS    GOVKRNMENT 

ment  should  be  made,  something  more  would  be  done 
than  merely  to  add  another  article  to  the  Constitution. 
The  very  spirit  of  the  instrument  would  be  wounded 
and  killed. 

There  are  some  things  which  could  never  become 
constitutional  though  you  wrote  them  into  the  Con- 
stitution a  thousand  times  and  confirmed  them  by  the 
thousand  ratifications  of  all  the  states.  The  reason 
is  that  they  are  not  in  the  constitution  of  justice. 

So,  while  the  people  are  indeed  supreine  over  the 
written  Constitution,  the  spiritual  constitution  is  su- 
preme over  them.  The  French  Revolutionists  wrote 
constitutions  too — every  drunken  writer  among  them 
tossed  off  a  constitution.  Where  are  they?  All  van- 
ished. Why?  Because  they  were  not  in  harmony  with 
the  constitution  of  the  universe.  The  power  of  the 
Constitution  is  not  dependent  on  any  (Government,  but 
on  its  inherent  rightness  and  practicability.  The  power 
of  the  Government,  however,  is  entirely  dependent  on 
the  Constitution,  and  because  that  parchment  says 
certain  things  about  elections,  the  administration  of 
the  Government  is  this  year  being  put  before  the  peo- 
ple for  a  new  selection. 

The  administration  of  government  is  so  vitally 
connected  with  the  people's  welfare  that  it  is  amazing 
to  see  how  really  little  initiative  interest  they  take  in 
the  selection  of  the  administrators. 

No  one  will  deny  the  statement  that  (here  is  more 
interest  being  shown  in  the  (jovernment  today  l)y  the 
would-be  administrators  tlian  b_\'  tlie  people  in  whose 
interest  the  (Jovernment  is  to  be  administered. 

There  are.  of  course,  several  reasons  for  tliat.  One 
is  that  the  people  know  that  whichever  old  parly  is 
appointed  by  the  peoi)le's  vote  to  the  administration 
of  the  (jovernmenl.  llie  (liffert'iice  will  not  be  notice- 
able. But  perhaps  the  strongest  reason  is  th.'it  the 
desire  of  the  would-bf  adiuini^trators  to  get  into  the 
ofiice  is  greater  than  tlie  dc-^irr  ol  ilic  proolr  lo  ])nt 
anv  of  them  in.  That  is  to  >a\-,  ihr  eU-riion  now  ap- 
proaching is  like  man\-  anollKT  in  that  rc^piTt  :  lho>e 
who  are  seeking  office  havi-  niadr  u])  their  mind  as  to 
what   thev    want,    with    far    nioi"e    (Uvm-^imh    aiid    ardor 


FORD   IDEALS 

than  the  people  have  made  up  their  mind  as  to  whom 
they  want. 

The  people  are  caught  between  two  currents.  One 
current  drives  heavily  in  favor  of  the  idea  of  gov- 
ernment as  an  aid  to  the  people  in  all  their  interests. 
"The  Government  can  do  it,"  is  the  keynote.  This  is 
true — however  much  it  may  be  overdone,  it  is  true. 
Why  should  it  not  be  true  that  the  people  acting  col- 
lectively— that  is,  through  the  Government — should 
not  be  able  to  accomplish  whatever  they  wish? 

Well,  then,  this  faith  in  the  Government  is  built  up. 
And  then  another  current  sets  in — an  administration 
is  put  into  office  which,  through  incompetency  or  dis- 
honesty, absolutely  disappoints  the  expectation  of  the 
people.  Then  follows  that  sinister  propaganda  which 
spreads  distrust  of  all  •  government  and  suspicion  of 
all  administrations. 

This  nation  is  founded  on  the  Constitution,  and 
the  Constitution  provides  for  the  government,  but  if 
the  Administration  fails  to  administer  the  Government 
for  the  people  for  whom  it  was  set  up  by  the  Consti- 
tution, then  it  is  serving  the  dark  forces  which  work 
to  undermine  all  confidence  in  the  idea  of  government. 

The  people  should  be  aroused  to  the  truth  that,  if 
the  Ad}ninistratio7i  does  not  serve  them,  it  is  not  the 
fault  of  government,  and  that  if  they  wish  the  Gov- 
ernment to  serve  them  they  must  themselves  make  the 
choice  of  those  zvho  administer  it. 

Election  time — good  old  Constitution-protected 
election  time — puts  the  whole  matter  directly  into  the 
people's  hands.  Conventions  have  nothing  to  do  with 
it.  Parties  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  The  people 
may  have  it  all  their  own  way,  to  put  in  whom  they 
will. 


324 


Loyalty  Has  Two  Sides 


IT  MAY  be  useful,  for  a  change,  to  commence  a 
discussion  of  Loyalty  in  Industry  at  the  point  of 
the  Loyalty  of  the  Employer.  There  is  always  enough 
being  said  about  the  need  of  loyalty  in  the  employes, 
and  indeed  that  is  a  most  important  point.  But  the 
other  is  important  too.  Loyalty,  to  be  fruitful  and 
enduring,  must  issue  from  opposite  sides.  Loyalty  on 
the  part  of  employes  must  be  met  by  loyalty  on  the 
part  of  the  employer.  Perhaps,  in  these  times,  it  is 
the  part  of  the  employer  to  be  first  to  demonstrate 
loyalty. 

What  are  we  to  be  loyal  to?  If  we  can  settle  that 
question,  or  even  throw  a  little  light  upon  it,  it  might 
do  much  to  help  us  think  straight. 

What  is  it  that  brings  employer  and  employe  to- 
gether in  the  first  place?  In  modern  industry  they 
first  meet  as  strangers.  Sometimes,  so  far  as  personal 
acquaintance  goes,  they  remain  strangers,  ^'et  it  is 
not  long  before  they  get  a  pretty  definite  idea  of  each 
other.  The  idea  may  be  wrong,  but  it  is  definite.  The 
employe  may  have  a  wrong  mind-piclure  of  his  em- 
ployer's intentions,  because  of  the  harshness  and  in- 
justice of  superintendents  or  foremen.  It  is  one  of 
the  biggest  problems  on  the  human  side  of  manage- 
ment to  prevent  the  employer's  real  ideas  for  the  good 
of  his  men  from  losing  all  their  vitality  by  the  lime 
they  have  filtered  down  through  the  subordinates  ot' 
the  organization. 

Dn  the  other  hand,  the  eniploNcr  niav  have  a  wrong 
nnnd-pictiu'e  of  the  employes,  because'  of  the  actions 
and  utterances  of  a  noisv  and  ohst ructi\e  niinoritw 
Whatever  ma\'  be  said  about  ■"collect i\e  bargaining." 
so-called,  and  other  relale<l  matteis.  one  objection  i> 
that  there  is  too  little  "collectiN-eness"  about  it.  A 
spokesman  who  does  not  work  in  the  >Iioi),  who  does 
not  work  in  an\-  shoj),  whose  xile  aiuhitiou  jiei'haps  i> 
never  again  to  have  to  work  in  ;i  shoi).  is  usualK'  the 


FORD    IDEALS 


"bargainer,"  and  it  is  from  what  he  says  or  does  that 
many  employers  draw  their  opinion  of  the  men  in  the 
shop. 

This,  of  course,  is  wrong,  and  it  leads  to  many 
misrepresentations  and  misunderstandings  which 
could  be  adjusted  in  a  minute  if  the  two  parties  ac- 
tually knew  each  other  and  the  conditions  under  which 
each  of  them  have  to  work.  No  thoughtful  man  will 
deny  for  a  moment  that  there  are  too  many  "go-be- 
tweens" who  are  really  "keep-aparts" ;  they  increase 
the  distance  between  the  two  interested  parties. 

Here  is  a  man,  perhaps  a  wage-earner,  who  gets 
a  mechanical  idea  which  he  develops  and  in  which  he 
sees  possibilities  of  great  usefulness.  He  cannot  put 
it  on  the  market  alone — no  man  can  do  much  alone — 
and  so  he  calls  in  men  to  help  him,  and  he  pays  them. 
If  he  is  a  success,  his  force  increases,  and  with  it  his 
own  managerial  problems  increase,  vmtil  he  is  so  busy, 
and  the  men  in  the  shop  are  so  busy  and  numerous,  that 
personal  contact  largely  ceases.  Those  who  knew 
him  when  his  office  problems  were  so  light  that  he 
could  lend  a  hand  in  the  shop  are  usually  loyal  to 
him  personally.  They  know  him ;  they  know  him  to 
be  one  with  them  in  his  ideas  and  experience  and 
sympathies. 

But  after  while  the  business  itself  grows  so  large 
as  to  supplant  the  personality  of  the  man.  In  a  big 
business  the  employer  is  just  like  the  employe — he  is 
partly  lost  in  the  mass.  Together  they  have  created 
a  great  productive  organization  which  sends  out 
articles  which  the  world  buys  because  they  are  useful, 
and  which  bring  in  money  which  provides  a  livelihood 
for  everyone  engaged  there.  The  business  itself  be- 
comes the  big  thing. 

There  is  something  humanly  sacred  about  a  big 
business  which  provides  a  living  for  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  famflies.  When  one  looks  about  at  the 
babies  that  are  coming  into  the  world  and  carefully 
tended,  at  the  boys  and  girls  who  are  being  sent  to 
school  and  educated,  at  the  young  working  men  who, 
on  the  strength  of  their  jobs,  are  being  married  and 
setting  up  for  themselves,  at  the  thousands  of  homes 
that  arc  being  paid  for  in  installments  out  of  the  earn- 

326 


LOYALTY    HAS   TWO    SIDKS 


ings  of  tlie  men — when  one  looks  at  a  great  j)ro(luctive 
organization  that  is  enabling  all  these  things  to  he 
done  by  those  who  are  engaged  in  it  and  for  their 
families,  one  feels  it  to  be  like  murder,  a  terrible  crime, 
to  attempt  or  to  risk  anything  that  would  jeoj)ardize 
in  the  least  degree  a  business  on  which  so  many  depend. 

The  employer  is  a  man  like  any  o.f  his  employes, 
subject  to  all  the  limitations  of  humanity.  The  only 
thing  that  justifies  him  in  holding  his  job  is  that  he 
can  fill  it.  If  he  can  steer  the  business  straight,  if  his 
men  can  trust  him  to  run  his  end  of  the  work  prop- 
erly and  without  endangering  their  settled  condition  in 
life,  then  he  is  filling  his  place  just  like  anyone  else. 
Otherwise  he  is  no  more  fit  for  his  position  than  a 
schoolboy  would  be  on  an  important  job  of  pattern 
making.  The  em])loyer  is  judged  by  his  ability,  just 
as  everyone  else  should  be. 

He  may  be  but  a  name  to  the  men — a  name  on  a 
signboard.  Vmt  there  is  the  business — it  is  more  than 
a  name.  It  produces  the  living  of  everyone  in  it.  and 
a  living  is  a  pretty  tangible  thing.  The  business  is  a 
reality.  It  does  things.  It  is  a  going  concern.  The 
evidence  of  its  fitness  is  that  the  pay  envelojK's  keep 
coming. 

Why  not  begin  loyalt_\'  there?  If  the  shop  is  keep- 
ing your  family,  educating  your  children,  buying  \()ur 
home,  ])roviding  you  with  a  reasonable  certaint}-  of 
emploNinent  and  a  money  return  that  you  can  do 
things  on,  you  are  entitled  to  regard  it  as  something 
which  is  definitelv  connected  with  voiu'  interest:  its' 
welfare  is  yours. 

-Vs  to  j)ersonal  loyaltv,  onlv  the  inde]ien(leni  eni- 
])lo\er  can  be  lo\al  to  liis  men.  The  other  l<ind  ot 
emj)lo\-er  niav  want  to  be.  but  tlie  influences  abox'f 
him  on  which  lie  (lei)en(ls  often  ])reveiU  him.  The  in- 
dependent enii)lo\er,  who  does  not  haxe  to  bow  to 
capitalists  above  liini,  can  prt'\ent  an\lhing  being  done 
that  will  decrease  the  retm'n  which  his  men  draw 
from  the  business.  lie  can.  indt'cd.  tri'rlx  (K'Xdte  liiin- 
self  to  devising  \\a\s  and  ineruK  1)\-  which  the\-  shall 
be  enabled  to  draw  more.  Xol  onl\'  nia\'  he  tCel  ihi-- 
t(j  be  a  dnt\-  whicli  he  owes  to  h'\<  nu-n.  Init  he  take:- 
a  pride  in  it.      High  wages  are  tlie  result   ol"  t\\(j  ele- 

}27 


FORD    IDEALS 


ments:  the  industry  of  the  men,  first.  But  this  in- 
dustry can  be  nulHfied  by  bad  management.  So  the 
second  element  is  good  management,  and  it  is  here 
that  the  employer's  pride  may  come  to  him.  When 
he  adds  good  management  to  his  men's  industry,  and 
this  enables  a  great  return  to  be  made  all  round,  the 
business  as  a  human  concern  is  a  success.  There  is  a 
great  distinction  between  a  manufactured  article  being 
a  success,  and  the  organization  that  manufactures  it 
being  a  success.  The  one  is  a  mechanical  problem; 
the  other  is  a  human  problem. 

The  forces  which  are  aiming  to  undermine  Amer- 
ican industry- — and  some  of  these  forces  have  a  very 
high  capitalistic  origin,  don't  forget  that ! — aim  first 
for  the  breakdown  of  loyalty  of  any  character  what- 
soever.    They  want  it  to  break  down. 

It  is  a  truth  which  every  American  workman  ought 
to  know  that  95  per  cent  of  the  agitation  which  they 
see  around  them  does  not  grow  up  out  of  the  working 
people,  but  it  comes  down  through  hired  agitators 
from  the  would-be  capitalistic  rulers  who  want  to  use 
the  workmen  themselves  to  break  down  the  very  in- 
dustries on  which  the  workmen  depend,  in  order  that 
then  the  workmen  may  be  thrown  on  their  tender 
mercies. 

You  are  not  hitting  the  capitalist  when  you  hit 
industry ;  you  are  hitting  the  workman.  Industry, 
independent  industry,  is  the  only  foe  the  capitalist 
fears.  Employers  and  employes  have  a  common  in- 
terest against  the  speculative  capitalists.  These  in- 
ternational capitalists  know  that  if  they  can  split 
employer  and  employe  apart,  and  so  break  up  industry, 
they  can  control  the  field.  And  the  pity  of  it  is  that 
so  many  employers  and  employes  are  blindly  playing 
the  game  of  their  common  enemy. 

A  man  is  loyal  to  the  house  that  shelters  him.  He 
doesn't  see  what  is  to  be  gained  by  knocking  it  down. 
The  same  kind  of  loyalty  to  the  industries  that  pro- 
vide for  us  will  block  the  game  which  the  liired  de- 
structionists  are  playing. 


328 


What  Shall  Prevent  War? 


THERE  will  be  a  "next  war"  just  as  certainly  as 
tomorrow  will  be  a  new  day,  it  there  is  a  more 
deliberate  organization  for  it  than  there  is  against  it 
It  is  not  a  question  of  what  the  people  "want";  it  is 
a  question  of  what  they  Will.  It  can  be  safely  said 
that  the  people  seldom  "want"  war;  but  just  as  seldom 
do  they  Will  peace.  In  1914  when  those  who  saw 
the  stupidity  of  war  in  this  age  went  out  into  the  arena 
and  tried  to  stop  it,  they  found  that  there  were  no 
tools  to  work  with.  The  world  had  been  systematically 
organized  for  war;  there  were  no  instruments,  no 
weapons  prepared  for  a  peace  otifensive.  Just  as  truly 
as  there  can  be  no  war  without  preparation,  so  there 
can  be  no  peace  without  preparation.  Preparedness 
is  a  necessary  condition;  it  is  just  a  question  of  what 
we  are  to  prepare  for. 

A  small  well-organized  minority  in  favor  of  war 
is  more  than  a  match  for  a  large,  unorganized  ma- 
jority which  is  sentimentally  inclined  toward  peace. 
The  world  is  ruled  bv  organized  minorities.  In  Rus- 
sia there  are  180,000,000  people;  yet  600.000  15ol- 
sheviks  rule  them. 

It  is  not  so  despicable  as  it  once  was  considered  to 
be  interested  in  world  peace.  Previous  to  P^14  the 
person  who  was  interested  in  the  peace  of  tlie  world 
was  regarded  as  an  amiable  faddist ;  he  would  have 
been  counted  more  virile  had  his  diversion  l)een  poker. 

But  the  past  six  years  has  shown  the  world  what 
war  is,  and  now  ev^'rybody  professes  to  believe  that 
it  is  tuispeakably  cruel  and  stupid.  1  he  most  amazing 
confessions  have  been  made  1)\'  those  who  were  for- 
merly the  most  ardent  militarists  as  to  the  uselessness 
of  it  all.  It  is  true  tlial  soldiers  exhibited  super-human 
courage  and  devotion;  it  is  true  that  nations  iirove(l 
almost  miraculotrs  capacitv  for  sacrifice;  the  human 
contribution  lavished  upon  war  was  most  glorious  in 
its  pui"e  unselfishness;  biU  the  men  wlio  promised  most 


FORD    IDEALS 


for  the  achievements  of  the  war  are  confessing  one 
hy  one  that  they  were  mistaken. 

The  criticism  of  war  is  not  of  the  quaHtics  which 
arc  contrihuted  to  it — Hfe,  love,  loyaUy  and  every  sac- 
rifice— but  that  war.  having  these  immeasurable  riches 
to  work  with,  could  do  so  little  with  them. 

If  any  constructive  program  of  hvunanity  could 
command  a  tenth,  a  hundredth  part  of  the  human 
values  that  war  can  command,  this  world  could  be 
completely  transformed  in  little  time. 

The  "next  war"  is  being  planned  when  the  last 
one  ceases ;  that  is,  men  whose  principal  business  is 
to  fight  make  preparations  for  doing  it  again.  It  may 
not  be  that  they  desire  it.  but  they  fail  to  see  in  hu- 
man nature  any  direct  "set"  against  it. 

In  one  of  the  countries  a  force  of  5.000  military, 
naval  and  air  experts  is  already  at  work  on  plans. 
This  does  not  mean  that  they  intend  to  provoke  war ; 
they  are  merely  getting  ready.  It  is  pretty  certain 
that  the  old  formality  of  a  declaration  of  war  is  a 
thing  of  the  past.  The  next  war  will  not  be  "declared." 
There  will  be  no  exchange  of  notes  and  a  sparring  for 
time.  In  the  older  days  it  was  military  etiquette  to 
l)ermit  the  enemy  to  fire  first.  After  many  years  this 
was  abandoned,  but  out  of  respect  for  the  public 
opinion  of  nations  a  "declaration  of  war"  was  made 
in  formal  fashion.  We  all  remember  how  those  dec- 
larations were  made  in  1914,  and  how  our  own  dec- 
laration was  made  after  an  all-night  session  of  Con- 
gress. 

The  next  war  will  sweep  down  like  a  tropical  storm, 
unannounced  by  any  trumpet  of  thunder  or  herald 
of  lightning.  That  is  being  planned  by  those  who  are 
studying  the  future. 

It  is  certain  that  if  war  is  permitted  again  to  deluge 
the  earth — and  to  permit  it,  all  we  have  to  do  is  to 
fail  to  prevent  it — the  tactics  of  the  Great  \\'ar  will 
be  as  out-of-date  as  if  it  had  been  fought  in  ancient 
times.  War  will  be  less  an  affair  of  men  and  more 
an  affair  of  machines.  The  individual  soldier  with 
his  rifle  is  almost  a  thing  of  the  past.  Even  battle- 
fields, vast  armies  confronting  each  other  in  the  same 
territory,  belong  to  outworn  methods.     Invisible  gases, 

.3.30 


WHAT    SHALL    PREVKNT    WAR? 

the  suffocation  of  whole  cities  without  noise,  silent 
horrors  of  every  kind,  stealthy  assaults  hy  very  few 
men  armed  with  most  potent  powers,  will  he  the  new 
order.  The  forces  of  nature  will  he  used  more  and 
more  to  supplant  the  muscular  force  of  soldiers.  Kay 
warfare  is  already  the  theme  of  military  study  and 
experiment  on  a  large  scale.  Light  rays  and  heat 
rays  are  heing  trained  to  heconie  allies  of  Mars.  The 
old  heroic  manner  of  man  lighting  man  will  he  largely 
done  away ;  warfare  will  hecome  world  nnu-der,  with 
nature  as  accomplice — if  nothing  happens  to  prevent. 

Germ  warfare  had  already  made  its  appearance 
before  the  recent  war  closed  its  main  phase,  but  it  was 
still  in  a  crude  stage.  Wells  were  poisoned,  cholera 
and  typhus  germs  were  let  loose,  women  who  carried 
disease  were  early  recognized  as  capable  of  great  use- 
fulness against  an  enemy.     But  all  this  was  very  crude. 

Things  were  done  which  the  common  people  of 
very  few  of  the  nations  would  have  approved.  No 
nation,  no  government  ever  felt  it  safe  during  the  re- 
cent war  to  take  its  people  into  its  conhdcnce  even  on 
matters  that  the  enemy  knew  full  well.  All  through 
the  war  and  even  today  the  only  people  who  do  noi 
know  the  whole  truth  about  the  war — not  the  diplo- 
matic or  i)olitical  truth,  but  the  truth  about  the  actual 
conduct  of  the  lighting  itself — are  the  people  who 
stood  the  brunt  of  it  all. 

The  people  don't  know  the  truth  about  war  con- 
tracts, about  war  profits,  about  the  connection  of  gov- 
ernment empUjyes  with  private  business,  about  the 
"inside"  group  that  really  ran  things — the  people  don't 
know  any  of  the  truth,  and  no  govermnenl  has  e\er 
dared  to  let  them  know. 

There  are  people  making  nionev  out  of  war  loday. 
Millions  are  being  minted  out  of  blood  and  sulVering 
this  very  minute.  There  is  enough  war  lincU-r  King 
about  to  kindle  the  whole  lire  again — il  iioihing  ])i\-- 
vents. 

\\  hat  is  there  to  prevent  ?  .\othiiig.  except  tlu' 
])eoi)le's  \\  ill.     lUil  llu'\'  must  exert  iluit    Will. 

N'ou  do  not  ha\e  to  si)eculale  alxmt  wliat  the  ])fop]c 
will  do:  y(»u  are  one  ot  them —  Judge  b\  xDur^rll.  ICn 
chanci'S  to  one  \()U  voursclf  arr  thinlsiiiL;  tlii--  luoiiient 


FORD    IDEALS 

that  it  is  a  waste  of  time  to  talk  about  war  and  peace. 
"The  war  is  over,"  you  say,  and  let  it  drop  at  that. 
But  is  War  over?  That  is  the  question.  Is  War 
over? 

War  is  not  over.  It  never  will  be  over  until  peace 
actually  is  more  than  a  sentiment  and  becomes  a 
program. 

Nothing  but  the  Will  to  Peace  of  the  people  can 
put  an  end  to  war.  Nothing  but  that.  You  may  have 
everything  else,  but  if  you  lack  that.  War  is  still 
possible. 

The  world  had  a  Peace  Palace  at  The  Hague ;  it 
did  not  have  the  Will  to  Peace  in  the  people ;  therefore 
war  came.  Suppose  we  have  a  League  of  Nations,  a 
World  Court,  a  Parliament  of  Man.  We  ought  to 
have  it.  We  have  the  opportunity  of  getting  it  now. 
But,  without  the  Will  to  Peace,  without  a  strong  set 
toward  peace  as  an  ideal,  a  League  of  Nations  would 
be  of  as  little  consequence  as  was  the  Belgian  treaty. 
»•  Paper  can  only  hold  ink.  But  the  Will  of  the 
People  for  Peace  can  hold  back  every  warlike  force 
in  the  world. 

This  is  not  an  academic  question.  But  no  doubt 
it  is  so  regarded.  It  begins  to  seem  as  if  peace  will 
have  to  make  as  hard  a  hght  as  if  there  had  been  no 
Great  War  at  all. 

One  point  is  important  just  now  :  the  world  this 
moment  is  doing  more  for  war  preparedness  than  for 
peace  preparedness.  Does  that  concern  you  now  ?  If 
not,  it  will  later. 


332 


The  County  Fair 


THERE  is  one  American  institution  not  provided 
for  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  which 
could  command  the  votes  of  all  of  us  if  it  required 
them — and  that  institution  is  the  County  Fair.  At  this 
season  of  the  year  it  begins  to  emerge  in  a  gorgeous 
array  of  colored  lithographs,  with  promises  of  "better, 
bigger,  best"  liberally  sprinkled  over  them,  and 
adorned  with  scenes  of  grain  held  and  pasture  land. 
The  very  air,  as  autumn  comes  on,  is  redolent  of  the 
soil  and  the  harvest. 

Town  and  Country  meet  at  the  County  Fair,  or 
State  Fair,  in  a  manner  and  under  auspices  that  can- 
not be  equaled.  And  anyone  who  has  observed  the 
efforts — the  deliberate  efforts — made  of  recent  years 
to  divide  Town  and  Country  and  i)rovoke  antagonism 
between  them,  knows  how  necessary  such  a  meeting  is. 

It  is  natural  that  the  Country  should  be  interested 
in  the  h^air,  because  the  T^'air  is  iirst  and  foremost  an 
exhibition  of  Farming  skill  and  progress.  Men  in  the 
same  business  like  to  compare  results,  and  that  is 
how  the  idea  of  a  l"'air  began.  In  l"'air-Time  the 
year's  work  is  mostly  done;  its  results  are  fairly  a])- 
parent,  and  it  is  possible  to  ])ass  a  verdict  on  it  all. 
Choice  grains,  fruits,  vegetables  ;  the  choice  of  flock 
and  herd  and  dairy — these  are  brought  togetlier  for 
the  judgment  of  the  farming  community.  The  do- 
mestic side  of  farming  is  represented  loo — choice 
([uiltings,  embroideries,  and  the  handiwork  ot  the 
women  of  the  farm. 

If  you  go  to  any  one  of  the  lillle  one-day  I'airs 
held  in  the  mountains  of  \  I'l'uiont  you  will  see  this 
institution  in  its  jirisline  sini])licily-  a  haii"  where 
there  is  nothing  to  sell,  hut  whri-e  the  choice  ot  llie 
hills  has  been  turned  out  to  >ho\\ .  1  hiTr  is  nothing 
elaborate  about  it.  but  evci-\  thing  \du  -re  ]ia<  conn' 
from  the  hills.  The  e.\hil)it>  are  not  large,  hut  hrliind 
each    of    them    is    the    home  lanii,    and    \i>n    can    rrad 


FORD    IDEALS 


everywhere,  in  the  legible  writing  of  life,  whatever 
the  hardships  or  whatever  the  successes  have  been. 
There  are  Fairs  and  Fairs,  and  many  famous  ones,  but 
it  is  in  the  little  Fairs  of  the  Eastern  United  States, 
where  families  still  come  behind  ox-teams,  and  where 
a  crate  of  chickens  brought  for  exhibition  gains  free 
admittance  for  the  whole  family,  that  you  see  the  Fair 
as  it  was  in  the  beginning. 

But  Fair-Time  is  money-time  on  the  Farm,  and 
therefore  was  added  a  commercial  element  by  which 
the  Farmer  and  the  Manufacturer  were  brought  in 
touch  with  each  other.  That  is  to  say,  the  Fair  be- 
came hospitable  and  widened  its  borders  so  that  the 
Town  could  come  in  and  exhibit  its  year's  progress 
too.  And  so  it  comes  that  when  we  have  wandered 
up  and  dowai  the  long  rows  of  well-washed  sheep, 
and  have  listened  to  the  pleasant  laughter  of  the  chil- 
dren where  the  little  pigs  delight  them,  and  have 
emerged  from  the  noisy  shed  where  the  chickens  are 
displayed,  and  have  passed  in  admiration  past  the  big 
box  stalls  where  glossy  horses  nuzzle  the  caressing 
hands  of  passers-by,  and  have  breathed  the  aroma  of 
the  fruit  exhibit  and  observed  the  clever  manner  in 
which  the  grain  display  has  been  arranged — we  are 
drawn  away  toward  the  clatter  of  the  threshing  ma- 
chine, the  ditch  digger,  the  farm  tractor,  and  other 
impressive  exhibits  which  warn  each  succeeding  Fair 
crowd  that  the  day  when  the  Farmer  had  to  work  like 
his  horse  is  past,  and  the  day  when  the  Farmer  may 
become  an  engineer  is  here. 

The  old  single-beam  plow,  the  old  windmill,  the 
old  method  of  harvesting  by  hand,  all  the  old  ways 
which  broke  men's  backs  and  burdened  women's  hearts 
— they  look  very  pleasant  in  pictures  and  they  were 
very  romantic  in  fiction ;  but  they  were  often  cruelly 
hard  on  flesh  and  blood.  We  shall  never  be  able  to 
thank  the  old-time  farmer  for  his  devotion  and  his 
toil. 

P)Ut  that  day  is  passing,  it  is  passing  before  our 
eyes.  Farming  in  the  old  style  is  raj^idly  fading  into 
a  picturesque  memory.  The  benefits  of  modern  in- 
vention and  standardized  manufacture  are  being 
heaped  upon  the  l^^armer  with  a  plenitude  which  makes 

334 


THE    COUNTY    FAIR 


up  for  its  too  long  delay.  This  does  not  mean  that 
work  is  going  to  he  removed  from  the  h^arm.  Work 
cannot  be  removed  from  any  life  that  is  productive. 
Rut  i'ovver-h'arming  does  mean  tiiis — I)rud()cr\  is  go- 
ing to  he  removed  from  the  Farm.  Power- harming 
is  simply  taking  the  burden  off  flesh  and  hh)od  and 
putting  it  on  steel. 

1^'arming.  of  course,  has  advanced.  I'ime  was 
when  men  dug  with  their  fingers  the  hole  where  the 
seed  was  planted,  and  j)ulled  the  crop  by  hand.  There 
was  an  Qra  of   Hand-h'arming. 

Then  came  the  time  of  Tool-I^^arming.  The  jjIow 
suj)planted  the  spade ;  the  disk  took  the  hoe's  i)lace, 
and  the  harrow  the  rake's.  The  drill  lifted  the  seed- 
bag  otf  the  farmer's  shoulder.  The  threshing  machine 
put  the  flail  into  the  discard.  The  mower  retired  the 
scythe  and  grain  cradle.  No  one  can  denv  that  Tool- 
Farming  made  great  strides. 

But  it  was  still  the  I'armer  whose  muscle  and 
nerve  made  the  tools  go.  The  h^armer  does  not  need 
new  tools  so  nuich  as  he  needs  Power  to  make  the 
tools  go.  And  thus  we  are  in  the  opening  vears  of 
the  Era  of  Power-Farming.  'I'hc  motor  car  has 
wrought  a  revolution  in  modern  h'arm  Life  not  he- 
cause  it  was  a  vehicle,  but  because  it  had   Power. 

'idiat  is  what  the  noise  of  niachiiiery  on  the  l"\-iir 
Ground  means.  It  means  that  Power- l-'arming  is 
coming  in.  Power- h^arming  is  using  motors  instead 
of  men's  nuiscles.  machine  speed  instead  of  the  droop 
ing  gait  of  the  tired  man  or  horse.  Power-h'arming 
is  the  magic  of  modern  mechanics  whereby  the  elemi'nt 
of    Drudgery   is   extracted    from    Work. 

So  Town  and  C'ountrv  meet  at  the  hair,  tlie  one 
to  see  the  fruits  of  the  fields,  the  other  to  see  the 
fruits  of  the  factories.  I)Oth  serve  each  other.  The 
trouble  is  that  they  do  not  servt'  each  oilier  more  di- 
rectly. There  nvv  too  man\-  interest'^  s(|uee/.ing  in 
between  tlu-ni.  Tliere  is  too  big  a  tax  or  toll  I'xacted 
on  the  exchange  between  them. 

It  would  be  a  good  thing  if  we  could  ad<I  a  third 
section  to  our  Pairs — a  section  where"  large  i;roup>  ot 
cit\'  ])eopk'  could  nu'et  will)  large  groujjs  ol  eounir\ 
peopK',    discuss    their    ])roliKMiis    togi'llu'r,    and    make 


FORD   IDEALS 


trade  arrangements  direct.  Suppose  100  families  liv- 
ing on  Block  9,  Smith  avenue,  should  say  to  Farmer 
Johnson,  "We  want  you  to  be  our  farmer.  We,  100 
families,  will  guarantee  you  a  straight  direct  sale  for 
all  your  produce."  What  would  be  the  result?  Farmer 
Johnson  would  get  more  from  those  people  than  from 
the  men  with  whom  he  now  deals,  and  he  could  sell 
to  the  city  people  for  less  than  they  have  to  pay  now. 
Both  would  make  money,  and  neither  would  be  at  the 
mercy  of  artificially  created  market  conditions.  Only 
a  "bad  year,"  that  is,  an  act  of  Nature,  could  afifect 
the  arrangement. 

Frank  judges  would  probably  say  that  of  the  two 
classes  who  meet  at  the  Fair,  the  farmer  has  the  better 
of  it.  He  may  look  toward  the  Town  and  sometimes 
envy  the  things  which  City  Folk  have  and  he  has  not. 
But  something  must  be  allowed  for  illusion.  Things 
are  not  always  what  they  seem.  City  Folk  have  many, 
many  things  that  are  not  desirable  at  all,  and,  strangely 
enough,  these  are  usually  the  very  things  which  give 
glamour  to  the  city.  The  city  has  nothing  worth  while 
that  the  Country  has  not,  or  cannot  have  if  it  will. 
It  is  too  bad  that  the  City  shines  so  gloriously  from 
afar  in  the  eyes  of  the  young  people  of  the  Farm. 
If  they  could  only  see  the  City  as  it  really  is,  they 
would  thank  the  good  fortune  that  brought  them  to 
birth  on  a  Farm.  Many  and  many  a  boy  and  girl 
learns  this  bitterly. 

So  we  are  all  going  to  the  Fair.  Old  and  young, 
rich  and  poor,  the  city  rube  and  the  farmer,  all  are 
going  to  the  Fair.  And  you  will  notice  one  very  sig- 
nificant thing:  the  fruits,  the  grains,  the  fowl,  the 
cattle  which  are  produced  where  Power-Farming  is 
practiced,  are  just  as  flavorous.  just  as  nutritious,  just 
as  "country" — in  short,  just  as  natural  as  Nature 
herself ;  only,  they  are  more  plentiful,  and  the  Power- 
Farming  family  will  look  much  more  natural,  because 
now  they  have  more  leisure  for  self -development,  more 
time  to  grow,  more  money  to  aid  their  happiness. 


The  Old  Ways  Were  (jood 


ONE  of  the  American  poets  has  a  Hne  which  runs 
somewhat  Hke  this — "All  of  good  the  past  hath 
had,  remains  to  make  our  own  time  glad."  He  proh- 
ably  had  his  own  special  thought  about  that  fact  when 
he  wrote  the  words,  and  being  a  poet  it  is  quite  likely 
that  some  aspects  of  the  truth,  or  illustrations  of  it. 
did  not  occur  to  him.  But  the  heart  of  any  great  ut- 
terance, the  quality  that  makes  it  live,  is  its  element  of 
truth.  And  many  a  truth  is  uttered,  the  full  meaning 
of  which  is  not  comprehended  by  him  to  whom  it  is 
given  to  utter  it.  There  is  a  prophetic  element  in 
truth — the   future  keeps   fulfilling   it. 

If  you  begin  even  at  so  common  a  point  as  house 
furnishing,  the  poet's  line  still  holds  good.  There  was 
something  about  the  old-fashioned  furniture  that  not 
only  satisfied  the  demand  of  utility  but  also  satisfied 
the  eye.  The  old  chairs  were  not  only  strong  and 
comfortable,  but  because  they  were  that  they  were 
graceful  also.  They  were  pleasant  to  look  upon  as 
well  as  rest  upon.  They  became  "old-fashioned"  in 
the  eyes  of  a  succeeding  generation,  and  were  displaced 
by  strange  designs  which  were  often  neither  useful 
nor  ornamental.  But  now,  do  you  notice,  they  are 
coming  back,  the  old-fashioned  rocking  chairs,  the 
old-fashioned  straight  chairs,  the  old-fashioned  sofas 
and  the  old-fashioned  tables.  And  for  no  other  rea- 
son than  that  they  satisfy  better  than  the  new  fash- 
ioned ones. 

This  is  perha{)s  more  generally  noticeable  in  the 
return  of  fireplaces.  It  was  once  the  fashion  to  board 
uj)  the  fireplaces  in  old-fashioned  homes  and  "paper" 
over  the  space.  .Stoves  were  all  the  st\le.  .Stoves,  of 
course,  are  useful,  but  i)e()p!e  like  to  see  the  lire. 
Children  love  to  see  "eyes  of  lirt-"  shining  tlirougli  the 
sliding  front  doors  of  the  kitclicn  cookslove.  .Adults 
like  the  sight  of  lire  in  tlie  old-fashioned  "self-feeder," 
now  rechristened  the  "base-burner." 


FORD    IDEALS 


But  none  of  these  satisfy  like  the  free  leaping 
flames  of  the  fireplace,  and  it  is  becoming  quite  the 
custom  in  many  parts  to  build  even  the  smaller  homes 
with  fireplaces.  Our  contact  with  fire  is  about  the 
only  natural  contact  we  can  keep  in  our  city  life.  Fire 
is  elemental,  h'ire  is  common  to  the  earth  beneath 
and  the  stars  and  svm  above.  We  feel  united  again 
to  the  natural  order  in  the  presence  of  domestic  fire. 
Simply  to  look  at  it — how^  it  draws  our  gaze,  how  it 
fascinates  us  into  dreams  and  visions ! 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  Bible  which  says  all  this 
in  a  few  words:  "I  am  warm;  I  have  seen  the  fire." 
The  very  sight  of  fire,  domestic  fire,  is  comfortable 
both  to  the  spirit  and  the  body.  The  fireplace  is  com- 
ing back  because  it  is  one  of  the  good  things  of  the 
past  which  the  present  is  not  willing  to  let  disappear. 

It  is  so  with  wheels.  In  the  earlier  days  everyone, 
or  nearly  every  family,  had  its  own  conveyance.  It 
was  so  much  a  necessity,  a  family  necessity,  that  no 
one  thought  of  it  as  a  luxury.  Animals  were  cheap, 
conveyances  were  easily  constructed. 

Then  with  the  invention  of  steam  transportation 
and  the  growth  of  cities,  individual  conveyances  began 
to  decrease  in  number,  so  much  so  that  in  England 
the  term  "gigman."  or  a  man  who  owned  a  gig,  was 
descriptive  of  aristocracy.  Until  a  few  years  ago 
everyone,  except  a  comparative  few  in  the  whole  popu- 
lation, traveled  by  train  or  street  car.  And  although 
the  railway  did  a  great  deal  toward  diminishing  the 
greater  distances,  it  tended  to  increase  the  lesser  dis- 
tances. The  intercomnumication  of  the  community 
was  decreased.  People  could  not  so  easily  get  about 
their  immediate  environment.  It  became  difficult  even 
to  cross  the  space  of  a  city.  Wheels  for  local  convey- 
ance became  fewer  and  fewer. 

But  once  more  the  world  is  on  wheels,  and  it  will 
never  get  off  them  again.  Individual  and  family  trans- 
portation is  not  only  a  nation-wide  but  a  world-wide 
fact.  Instead  of  there  being  less  wheels  under  per- 
sonal direction  in  the  future,  there  will  be  more  and 
better  ones.  What  the  past  found  good  and  necessary, 
the  present  is  finding  good  and  necessary,  and  it  will 
be  the  same  in  the  future. 

338 


THE  OLD   WAYS    WKRE  GOOD 

So,  you  conUl  jjo  through  the  whole  rouiul  of  daily 
living  and  find  the  old  things  coming  hack.  We  are 
even  going  hack  to  the  use  of  water  power  to  a  greater 
extent  than  ever  oiu"  forlK-ars  did.  It  may  he  that 
we  shall  some  time  find  many  of  the  old-time  domestic 
arts  return  to  the  household.  What  an  influence  for 
good  it  would  have  on  trade  at  large  if  the  households 
of  the  land  learned  again  what  constitutes  good  qual- 
ity in  clothing  and  food.  We  are  heing  clothed  with 
shoddy  hecause  we  do  not  know  how  to  identify  good 
quality  in  the  goods  we  buy.  Our  mothers  could  run 
their  fingers  over  a  piece  of  cloth  and  tell  to  the  thread 
what  constituted  it.  They  were  good  buyers  because 
they  knew  material  c|ualities.  But  since  the  house- 
hold arts  have  disappeared,  we  are  at  the  mercy  of 
the  adulterator  in  foods  and  fabrics  and  other  manu- 
factured materials.  Who  knows  but  that  the  spinning 
wheel  may  yet  return  alongside  the  fireplace,  the  old 
settle,  and  the  family  conveyance  ?  ^^'ho  knows  but 
that  the  family  bake  oven  will  return  also?  One  thing 
is  (piitc  clear,  if  there  were  more  of  the  art  of  baking 
bread  in  the  land,  the  price  of  bread  would  more 
nearly  conform  to  the  price  of  wheat  than  it  does  now. 
But  this  phase  of  return  to  the  old  ways  awaits  a 
period  of  invention  which  will  put  at  the  disposal  of 
the  housewife  the  same  improvements  which  have 
come  to  pass  in  other  fields.  We  may  yet  see  con- 
trivances appear  which  will  make  the  household  more 
a  self-sustaining  community  than  it  now  is.  Con- 
trivances that  shall  separate  the  work  from  the  drudg- 
ery will  revolutionize  the  work  of  housekeeping,  a>^ 
they  have  done  in  other  fields. 

One  former  practice  ought  to  come  back  at  once, 
and  that  is  tlie  good  old-fashioned  habit  of  providing 
for  the  winter.  All-the-vcar-rouiid  industrialism  has 
had  a  tendency  to  make  us  an  itni)r(>vi(lent  folk  in  tbi^ 
regard.  The  fervor  of  tlie  old-time  Thanksgiving 
arose  from  the  fact  that  men  could  see  their  winter 
])rovisions  ahead  of  them.  'I'he\-  had  a  feeling  of 
snugness  and  secm"it\-.  The  woodpiles  were  ample, 
the  cellar  was  stored  with  tlii'  substantial  necessities 
of  life.  There  was  no  dread  of  the  ordinarv  i)revent- 
able  lacks  of  suj)i)ly. 

339 


FORD   IDEALS 


It  would  seem  that  this  practice  is  well  worth  re- 
storing and  preserving.  It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that 
although  we  live  in  cities,  although  we  have  largely 
left  the  agricultural  field,  we  are  still  afifected  by  the 
seasons,  just  as  it  is  true  that  although  we  have  prac- 
tically abolished  night  from  our  cities,  we  are  still  af- 
fected by  the  night.  Civilization  has  not  abolished 
winter  in  the  least,  only  a  few  of  its  physical  dis- 
comforts. 

We  should  be  approaching  the  winter  in  a  better 
frame  of  mind  if  we  could  think  of  all  the  families  of 
the  country  as  well  provided  against  their  winter 
needs.  If  we  could  feel  today,  in  looking  abroad  on 
our  country  and  the  world,  that  like  the  bees  and  the 
squirrels,  the  families  of  the  earth  had  kept  winter 
in  mind  all  through  the  allurements  to  summer  ex- 
travagance, and  had  fortified  themselves  against  the 
slackness  and  needs  of  winter,  it  would  generate  a 
spirit  of  thankfulness  which  would  be  entirely  purged 
of  selfishness  and  would  itself  constitute  a  hymn  of 
happiness. 

The  old  ways  were  not  so  foolish  after  all.  They 
met  the  old  necessities,  and  the  old  necessities  are  with 
us  yet.  Life  is  a  business  to  be  managed,  and  a  great 
many  people  are  "poor  managers."  This  is  not  be- 
cause they  cannot  be  anything  else,  but  simply  be- 
cause they  have  not  grasped  the  idea  that  life  is  to 
be  managed.  The  home  is  a  little  corporation  in  itself 
and  needs  something  of  the  wise  foresight,  the  wise 
repression  of  unprofitable  impulses  which  keep  other 
institutions  solvent  and  afloat. 

The  old  industry,  the  old  thrift,  the  old  preference 
of  the  necessary  rather  than  the  unnecessary,  will  help 
bring  back  something  of  the  old  material  securitv. 


340 


It  Is  Imperfect — But  It  Works 


IF  YOU  take  our  present  social  system  and  set  it 
down  as  a  diagram  on  paper,  as  the  various  re- 
formers do  with  their  social  schemes,  you  will  dis- 
cover a  curious  thing — you  will  discover  that  the 
present  system  of  society  is  utterly  impossible,  it  will 
not  work.  Yet  it  does  work !  As  you  diagram  it,  it 
would  seem  to 'contradict  itself  at  every  step,  it  would 
seem  to  be  the  most  unbalanced  and  ill-jointed  and 
incoherent  entity  that  anyone  could  conceive.  Yet 
here  it  is,  and  it  answers  certain  ends. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  take  Bolshevism  or  any 
of  the  other  various  forms  of  socialism,  and  put  them 
upon  paper  in  diagram  form,  you  will  apparently  have 
before  you  the  perfect  scheme  of  a  perfect  society, 
and  3-ou  may  be  easily  convinced  that  it  will  work.  It 
seems  plain  that  it  must  work.  Thousands  of  people, 
viewing  the  diagram,  are  thoroughly  .persuaded  that 
it  cannot  help  but  work.  Nothing  remains  to  do  but 
start  it !  Yet,  the  curious  and  disillusioning  fact  is 
that  it  does  not  work. 

That  is  one  of  the  strangest  discoveries  we  can 
make :  the  utterly  impossible  thing  goes  ;  tlie  appar- 
ently i)erfect  thing  fails.  Make  a  diagram  of  social 
and  economic  life  in  the  United  States,  and  you  would 
be  ready  to  say,  "Impossible!"  Make  a  diagram  of 
Bolshevist  social  theory,  and  you  would  probablv  be 
ready  to  say,  "How  practical,  perfect  and  desirable!" 
Yet  life  in  llie  United  States  goes  on  securelv.  while 
Russia,  except  to  a  few  grafters,  is  a  nearer  a])i)r()ach 
to  hell  than  was  ever  witnessed  on  this  planet.  An\ 
Boislievist  wlio  lias  ii;ul  a  full  taste  of  P)olslu'vism  as 
it   is,  will   tell   \ou  so. 

So  many  things  :u"e  clumsy,  stupid  and  imperfect  ; 
and  so  n)any  ollert'd  substitutes  .'irr  cIcvit,  logical  and 
alluring,  that  it  grows  to  be  a  wonder  whv  the  im- 
j)erfect  thing  lasts  and  \\Ii\-  the  apparenth-  perfect 
thing  does  not   take  its  place. 


FORD    IDEALS 


The  reason  seems  to  be  a  deep-set  instinct  of  hu- 
manity that  paper-plans  may  be  all  right  on  paper, 
but  society  is  an  organism,  society  is  a  process,  a  life, 
a  growth,  which  cannot  be  laid  out  on  a  blueprint,  any 
more  than  a  soul  can  be  diagramed. 

There  is  little  chance  of  an  intelligent  people 
running  wild  with  the  fundamental  processes  of  eco- 
nomic life.  Most  men  know  they  cannot  get  some- 
thing for  nothing.  Most  men  feel,  even  if  they  do 
not  know,  that  money  is  not  wealth.  The  ordinary 
theories  which  promise  everything  to  everybody,  and 
demand  nothing  from  anybody,  are  promptly  denied 
by  the  instincts  of  the  ordinary  man,  even  when  his 
mind  does  not  form  reasons  against  them.  He  knows 
that  they  are  wrong,  and  that  is  enough. 

But  that  does  not  dispose  of  the  other  fact  that  the 
present  order,  always  clumsy,  often  stupid,  and  in 
many  ways  imperfect,  can  work  along  as  well  as  it 
docs.  Admitting  that  it  is  not  a  perfect  order  by  any 
means,  it  still  has  this  advantage  over  the  other.s — it 
works.  To  be  sure,  this  is  a  fact  in  its  favor,  but  it  is 
not  a  fact  which  cannot  be  true  of  any  other  order. 
Doubtless  this  order  will  merge  by  degrees  into  an- 
other, and  the  new  one  will  work  also,  not  so  nuich  by 
reason  of  what  it  is,  but  by  reason  of  what  men  will 
bring  into  it. 

The  reason  why  Bolshevism  did  not  work,  and 
cannot  work,  is  not  economic  at  all.  It  doesn't  mat- 
ter whether  industry  is  privately  managed  or  socially 
controlled;  it  doesn't  matter  whether  you  call  the 
workers'  share  "wages"  or  "dividends" ;  it  doesn't 
matter  whether  you  reginientalize  the  people  as  to 
food  and  clothing  or  shelter,  or  whether  you  allow 
them  to  eat  what  they  like,  wear  what  they  like  and 
live  where  they  like.  These  are  mere  matters  of  de- 
tail. The  incapacity  of  the  Bolshevik  leaders  is  indi- 
cated by  the  fuss  thcv  made  over  such  details. 

Xo,  the  reason  for  Bolshevism's  failure  is  its  de- 
liberate ignoring  of  common  morality  and  human  na- 
ture. Human  natmx  is  addicted  to  moral  revolts,  but 
it  never  respects  a  system  that  depends  upon  the  moral 
revolt  being  constant.  There  are  conditions  under 
which  every  man  will  steal,  but  not  even  the  conlirmed 

342 


IT    IS    IMl'ERKKd       HIT     H     WOKKS 

thief  respects  the  system  that  drives  everyone  to 
thievery.  Bolshevism  has  exacted  the  greatest  sacri- 
fice ever  demanded  of  a  people — tlie  sacrifice  of  their 
essential  morality  and  the  sacrifice  of  their  former 
freedom.  It  was  a  great  price,  a  price  worthy  of  a 
great  return.     But  there  will  he  no  return.     Why? 

There  is  no  truth  and  sincerity,  therefore  there 
can  be  no  mental  or  moral  strength.  These  things  go 
together.  Bolshevism  does  not  know  it.  You  may 
change  social  methods  as  much  as  you  please ;  as  long 
as  the  earth  gives  her  yield,  and  as  long  as  men  are 
sincere,  a  satisfactory  form  of  life  will  be  possible. 
The  trouble  with  perfect  social  diagrams  is  that  they 
assume  the  control  of  men  who  are  destitute  of  the 
moral  sense,  and  who  have  no  conception  of  the  depths 
and  heights  of  common  human  nature. 

That  is  the  exj)lanation  of  the  operation  of  our 
own  social  system  as  at  present  constituted.  \\  rong? 
— of  course  it  is  wrong,  at  a  thousand  points!  Clumsy? 
of  course  it  is  clumsy ;  reminiscent  of  the  Dark  Ages 
at  a  hundred  points !  By  all  right  and  reason  it  ought 
to  break  down.  Why  doesn't  it?  I^ecause  it  is  in- 
stinct with  certain  economic  and  moral  fundamentals. 
That  is  the  reason. 

The  economic  fundamental  is,  of  course.  labor. 
Labor  is  the  human  element  which  makes  the  faithful 
seasons  of  the  earth  useful  to  men.  It  is  men's  labor 
that  makes  the  harvest  what  it  is.  That  is  the  eco- 
nomic fundamental ;  ever\-  one  of  us  is  working  with 
material  which  we  did  not  and  could  not  create,  but 
which  was  presented  to  us  by  nature. 

The  moral  fundamental  is,  of  course,  men's  rights 
in  their  labor.  This  is  variously  stated.  It  is  some- 
times called  "the  right  of  property."  It  is  sometimes 
masked  in  the  command,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal."  It 
is  the  other  man's  rights  in  bis  property  that  makes 
stealing  the  crime  that  it  is.  When  a  man  lias  earned 
his  bread,  be  has  rights  in  that  bread.  If  another 
steals  it.  be  steals  more  than  bread;  he  makes  an  in- 
vasion of  sacred  lunnan  rights. 

Now.  there  is  just  enough  of  the  i)resence  of  these 
two  fundamentals  to  enable  society  to  contimie  after 
a  fashion  and  to  }iel(l  the  fruits  of  life  to  an  increasing 

343 


FORD   IDEALS 

number  of  people.  The  majority  of  people  work. 
Of  course  there  are  some  who  do  not,  but  they  have 
been  so  small  a  minority  that  they  do  not  affect  the 
whole.  Property  rights  are  acknowledged  to  a  large 
extent.  Not  to  the  full,  perhaps,  but  sufficiently  to 
keep  the   social   scheme   intact   and   working. 

"Not  to  the  full,"  has  just  been  said,  but  surely 
nearer  the  full  than  to  total-  denial  of  rights.  The 
scale  will  show  that  progress  has  been  made  more 
than  half  way,  at  the  very  least ;  yes,  very  much  more 
than  half  way;  and,  what  is  better,  moving  toward 
the  "full"  all  the  time.  You  know,  all  there  is  to  di- 
vide is  what  we  altogether  create.  What  we  together 
create  is  distributed,  that  is,  pretty  well  divided  al- 
ready; if  it  were  not  there  would  be  no  commerce. 
The  contention  seems  to  be  as  to  whether  the  rewards 
have  been  divided.  And  regardless  of  differing  atti- 
tudes as  to  this,  the  fact  remains  that  here  too  the 
scale  is  rising  toward  the  "full." 

So  that  is  what  keeps  our  society  afloat.  Clumsy 
as  it  seems  when  put  on  paper,  it  has  that  saving 
essence  within  it — an  essence  compounded  of  industry 
and  morality.  You  cannot  build  society  without  mor- 
ality any  more  than  you  can  build  a  span  of  broken 
planks.  Indeed,  what  represents  tensile  sti^ngth  in 
the  social  world  is  just  this  thing  we  call  morality — 
no  society  is  stronger  than  its  moral  conceptions,  and 
when  you  seek  the  caliber  of  a  society's  moral  concep- 
tions you  look  at  the  security  of  the  rights  of  property 
among  them — the  rights  of  the  individual  in  himself 
and  in  the  products  of  his  labor. 


344 


A  New  Year 


IT  IS  a  New  Year,  but  there  will  be  an  astonishing 
number  of  old  things  about  it.  Its  newness  is  un- 
deniable, but  its  familiar  lines  are  unmistakable.  One 
would  find  it  not  an  easy  task  to  separate  the  newness 
from  the  oldness  during  the  year.  Yet  the  Year  itself 
is  new.  Every  experience  that  shall  befall  us  during 
its  52  weeks,  will  also  be  new.  It  may  be  familiar, 
known,  but  still  it  will  be  new.  Life  is  made  up  of  a 
repetition  of  similar  experiences,  with  now  and  then 
an  unfamiliar  one  to  stand  out  as  a  landmark. 

It  is  a  new  cycle  of  time.  A  new  breath,  as  it 
were,  woven  in  the  Loom,  raw  material  of  which  to 
make  what  we  will.  That — the  time  cycle — at  least 
so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  is  new. 

But  it  is  raw  material.  The  fully  made-up  year  is 
the  finished  product.  What  it  may  be  like  we  have 
just  had  the  opportunity  to  see.  A  made-up  year  has 
just  passed  out  of  the  Time-factory,  to  take  its  place 
among  the  other  1919  years  of  this  era. 

It  is  not  a  particularly  fiaUering  product,  the  year 
we  have  just  finished.  Stand  it  up,  turn  it  around,  and 
examine  it,  and  it  doesn't  stand  scrutiny  very  well.  It 
appears  to  be  decidedly  amateurish  and  very  mucli 
botched.  In  no  single  particular  is  it  standardized. 
There  are  spots  here  and  there  upon  it  which  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  moments  came  to  the  makers 
when  they  really  had  an  idea  of  making  something — • 
but  then  they  seem  to  have  resumed  their  aimless  put- 
tering again. 

No;  as  we  look  at  the  year  upon  which  history  has 
just  affixed  the  lal)el  "1920"  we  are  nol  willing  tliat  it 
should  serve  as  a  sample  }ear.     It  isn't  gtjod  enougli. 

The  reason  is,  of  course.  simi)]e  to  understand. 
The  human  race  has  not  l)een  very  long  in  the  business 
of  \'ear-Alaking.  There  are  only  L^20  credited  to 
the  production  record  of  tln'  Christian  l^ra,  and  that 
is  a  comj)aratively  small  nuniln'r. 


FORD    IDEALS 


"But  after  making  1920  years,  a  perfect  year  ought 
to  be  turned  out  now  and  then,"  might  appear  to  be  a 
natural  objection. 

jrhat  brings  us  to  the  "labor  turnover."  The  same 
people  have  not  been  engaged  in  making  the  entire 
1920  years.  There  is  an  immense  turnover  of  human- 
ity every  generation.  People  appear  on  earth,  pass  a 
few  careless  apprentice  years,  and  then  seriously  try — 
some  of  them — to  do  a  man's  work  upon  the  making 
of  the  Years.  But  hardly  have  they  learned  the  rudi- 
ments when  a  new  shift  comes,  new  and  unaccustomed 
hands  take  up  the  work.  The  years  run  on,  they  come 
out  precisely  at  the  end  of  December  on  schedule  time, 
but  they  do  not  show  on  their  human  side  the  marks  of 
unity  and  mastery. 

The  year  is  after  all  but  a  small  bit  in  the  mosaic  of 
the  Age,  and  perhaps  we  shall  be  better  able  to  judge 
it  from  a  perspective  which  enables  us  to  see  the  whole 
pattern ;  but  even  so,  we  are  right  in  feeling  that  the 
whole  mosaic  of  the  age  would  be  better,  if  each  bit 
were  better  made. 

Inevitably,  next  December,  we  shall  have  to  deliver 
to  the  Builder  of  the  Age  another  year,  and  it  is 
natural  to  wonder  what  it  may  turn  out  to  be. 

What  have  we  nc2v  about  the  year?  Very  little, 
except  the  time.  That  has  never  been  used  before, 
will  never  be  used  again. 

But  the  old  things  that  troop  along  into  the  New- 
Year  are  very  numerous.  It  is  almost  like  the  same 
old  family  moving  into  a  new  house ;  very  little  is 
changed  after  all. 

It  is  the  same  old  Earth,  for  one  thing.  And  that 
is  a  genuine  benefit.  We  know  what  the  Earth  will 
do.  We  know  what  we  can  absolutely  depend  on  it 
to  do.  That  is  a  great  saving  of  time,  for,  if  this  year 
the  human  race  had  to  begin  all  over  again  and  by 
careful  and  costly  experiment  find  out  the  powers  of 
the  Earth,  the  year  would  be  almost  empty. 

But  we  know  that  the  soil  will  radiate  the  sun's 
warmth  in  spring,  that  moisture  and  heat  will  create 
chemical  conditions  out  of  which  man's  food  will 
come ;  we  know  that  the  earth  will  produce  lumber 
and  ores  and  material  for  clothing.     \\'e  have  learned 


A    NF.W    YEAR 

all  that.  It  is  no  lonj^jcr  a  (jiicstion  of  anxious  un- 
certainty. Take  up  a  handful  of  soil;  in  it  are  the 
elements  of  food,  clothing,  shelter  for  all  mankind. 

Then,  we  bring  into  the  New  \'ear  the  same  old 
necessity  of  getting  busy  in  order  to  set  the  soil  doing 
for  us  the  things  we  need.  And  it  is  remarkable,  when 
you  begin  to  put  the  soil  to  work,  how  many  men 
you  have  to  put  to  work  too.  If  it  is  the  era  of  "the 
man  with  the  hoe."  somebody  has  to  make  the  hoc. 
y\nd  then  somebody  must  take  part  of  the  product  of 
the  hoe's  work  to  the  man  who  helped  make  the  hoe  ; 
and  before  you  know  it  you  have  started  the  (ireat 
Sisterhood  of  .Vrts  in  motion— Agriculture,  Manufac- 
ture, Transi)ortation. 

It  may  be  a  better  Agriculture — -exchanging  the 
hoe  for  a  tractor;  it  may  be  a  better  Manufacture — 
exchanging  the  btuxlen  from  men  to  machines;  it  may 
be  a  better  Transportation — leaving  the  hand-drawn 
or  ox-drawn  cart  for  the  motor  vehicle  on  land  or  in 
air ;  but  in  spite  of  improvements  it  is  the  same  raising, 
making  and  carrying  of  what  we  need,  it  is  work 
in  its  primary  and  essential  forms. 

We  are  also  taking  with  us  into  the  New  Year  tlie 
old-fashioned  rule  that  what  a  man  earns  is  his  own, 
and  no  one  has  the  right  to  lake  it  unjustly  from  him. 
It  is  a  very  good  rule;  without  the  stability  it  olVers. 
society  woukl  be  as  impossible  as  agriculture  would 
be  if  there  were  no  ccrtaint}-  about  the  order  of  the 
seasons  or  the  o])cralions  of  nature.  Many  men  try 
to  change  this  rule;  they  want  what  another  man  has 
earned,  and  they  want  to  take  it  in  the  name  of  "so- 
ciety." But  people  who  have  learned  this  funda- 
mental wisdom  and  justice  of  the  relation  between 
])ersonal   and   ])ropen\-   rights,   never   unleai'n    it. 

It  would  be  very  hopelul,  ho\\e\'ei-.  it  we  could 
get  some  new  things  for  the  Xew  ^  eai".  We  begin 
work  on  1921  under  strange  conditions.  The  l-"arth 
is  just  what  it  always  was.  Human  needs,  which  are 
the  mainspring  of  all  activity,  are  just  what  lliev 
alwa\s  were.  Material  and  men.  the  osenlial  coni- 
])onents  of  cix'ili/.ation.  are  both  liere  in  almndancc, 
and  \-et  llu-re  is  a  stoppagi'  ol   actixitw 

W  lu' ?      Jlecau^e,    a])parcnil\-.    ^omciliinL;    ha-    liaj)- 


FORD   IDEALS 


pened  to — what?  To  the  soil?  No.  To  men?  No. 
To  material  resources  ?  No.  But  something  has  hap- 
pened to  that  quantity  known  as  Money.  They  are 
making  it  "less"  in  the  country,  "contracting  the  cur- 
rency," they  call  it.  They  are  trying  to  make  money 
more  nearly  measure  up  with  the  gold.  Why?  Be- 
cause "they"  have  decreed  that  Gold  is  the  basis  of 
Money. 

There  is  not  enough  gold  to  go  around.  Even  as 
a  measure  of  wealth,  there  is  not  enough  gold  to  equal 
in  figures  the  actual  wealth.  There  is  not  enough  gold 
in  existence  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  war  debts  ac- 
cumulated by  the  nations  during  the  last  few  cen- 
turies. To  make  business  wait  on  gold  is  like  mak- 
ing the  passenger  traffic  of  a  main  line  dependent  on 
the  facilities  of  a  local  branch  with  one  small  train 
a  day.  If  gold  did  the  work  it  might  be  as  acceptable 
as  anything  else ;  but  it  doesn't. 

It  would  be  a  splendid  thing  if  in  1921  some  finan- 
cier, whose  business  is  making  prosperity  instead  of 
making  money,  should  show  us  the  way  to  avoid  hav- 
ing business  tied  up  for  money,  when  all  the  ele- 
ments of  business  are  here.  Financiers  have  been 
very  skillful  in  devising  schemes  which  draw  all  the 
money  to  New  York ;  now  for  a  financier  who  shall 
devise  a  scheme  to  keep  the  money  in  the  local  com- 
munities where  it  is  needed !  As  long  as  we  must  have 
money,  let  us  have  it  under  a  system  where  it  helps 
instead  of  hinders,  where  it  keeps  men  in  their  jobs 
instead  of  letting  them  out.  Such  a  plan  would  make 
1921  a  great  year.  It  would  help  the  millions  who 
are  not  financiers,  but  who  are  always  under  the  pres- 
sure of  our  present  financial  system. 


348 


How  It  Will  Be  Solved 


WHEN  men  grew  tired  of  waiting  for  the  wind 
to  blow,  they  invented  something  that  would 
take  its  jjlace.  Vov  sails  they  substituted  steam  en- 
gines. I'^or  windmills  they  substituted  force  pumps. 
There  was  no  objection  to  the  wind,  but  there  was  ob- 
jection to  waiting  for  it.  Men  wanted  something  thev 
could  start  themselves.  They  could  light  a  tire  in  the 
steam  engine  and  make  things  go.  I'hey  could  work 
the  pump  handle  and  keep  water  flowing.  They  could 
start  things. 

That  is  really  the  mark  of  human  progress,  when 
men  can  start  things  going,  without  waiting  for  the 
usual  natural  currents  to  create  a  movement.  Some 
men  can  think ;  that  is,  they  can  start  their  mind  work- 
ing, they  can  determine  when  and  on  what  problem 
their  mind  shall  go  to  work,  quite  regardless  of  mood 
or  liking.  But  other  men  can  only  receive  thoughts; 
they  are  reci]Ments,  not  projectors.  Their  minds  are 
open  stretches  over  which  pla\s  now  cloud,  now  sun  ; 
they  take  what  impressions  they  receive;  their  minds 
are  sensitive  plates,  not  creative  (l\iiamos. 

There  has  been  a  certain  amount  of  control 
achie\'ed  in  the  material  world,  but  until  the  same  tle- 
gree  of  control  is  achieved  in  the  economic  and  so- 
cial world,  we  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  made 
j)rogress. 

Men  no  longer  wait  for  ibe  wind  to  blow,  i)ut  they 
"wait  for  ])usiness  to  start  up  again." 

Men  no  longer  depend  on  the  wind-driven  pumj). 
but  they  still  wait  for  "things  to  take  a  turn." 

That  is,  in  everything  but  mecbanical  i)()wer  we 
are  still  in  the  i)rimilive  agx'  ol  our  fathers.  We  are 
still  (K'])eii(U'nt  on  the  whim  of  tlu'  wind.  If  it  blows, 
we  go;  it  it  is  calm,  we  stand  ^till.  \\ T  sprak  about 
"business"  with  something  ol"  the  same  tone  ot  the 
inevitabU'  that  w  c  use  when  speaking  aboiu  tlu' 
\\catluM-.      I'anies  come  like  rain<t(ii-ins.  (lei)r("-<ion  like 


FORD    IDEALS 

cloudy  days,  prosperity  like  "a  bright  spell,"  for  all 
that  human  beings  can  do  with  regard  to  controlling 
these  things. 

The  question  is  constantly  becoming  more  and 
more  pressing  as  to  the  amount  of  control  that  man- 
kind can  exercise  over  these  matters. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  heart  of  the  problem  is 
just  in  that  point.  It  is  a  human  cause,  whether  you 
designate  it  ignorance  or  selfishness  or  what  not — it 
is  human.  If  it  be  mostly  ignorance,  the  cure  is  in 
knowledge.  If  it  be  mostly  selfishness,  the  cure  is  in 
social-mindedness. 

But  the  one  point  to  be  clear  about  is  that  the  cause 
is  in  humanity  and  not  in  outer  Nature.  If  the  Earth 
had  at  any  time  failed,  the  basis  of  human  society  would 
have  been  wrecked  beyond  repair.  But  there  have  been 
seed  time  and  harvest  continuously,  and  though  there 
have  been  local  crop  failures,  never  has  a  failure  oc- 
curred that  would  have  prevented  the  whole  world 
being  satisfied  if  transportation  conditions  had  been 
equal  to  the  need.  The  Earth  has  always  yielded 
enough  to  feed  the  people  on  it ;  the  Earth  goes  on 
doing  it  year  by  year.  Even  with  Central  China  and 
Eastern  Europe  starving,  there  is  still  enough  food 
on  the  earth  to  feed  the  entire  hvunan  race. 

Now,  we  may  use  very  high-sounding  names  to 
dcscril)e  the  activities  which  engage  us  during  this 
life,  but  the  one  term  which  describes  them  all  is 
"getting  a  living."  And  a  living  means  food,  clothing, 
shelter.  I-'ood  nieans  agricultiu'e ;  clothing  means 
manufacture ;  all  three  mean  transportation.  The  basis 
of  all  is  the  Earth;  it  has  never  failed. 

And  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  as  long  as  man- 
kind regards  its  economic  welfare  as  the  effect  of 
natural  forces,  now  blowing  toward  prosperity  and 
now  toward  depression,  there  is  sufficient  appearance 
of  uncontrollable  fate  to  give  color  to  the  supposition. 
If  things  are  let  alone  to  go  down  to  zero,  they  do 
come  back;  and  if  things  are  left  to  rage  along  in  a 
riot  of  prosperity  with  no  thought  of  the  future,  they 
do  conic  to  a  fall,  lliere  is  just  enough  to  justify  man's 
lazy  supposition  that  "if  it's  to  be,  it's  to  be"  and 
nothing  that  he  can  do  can  change  the  result. 


HOW    IT    Wll.r.    BE    SOLVED 

There  are  economic  laws,  but  who  knows  what 
they  are?  The  bankers  don't  know.  'I'he  men  who 
would  frame  the  laws  so  that  a  gold  dollar  wf)uld 
mean  much  more  than  a  man's  labor  don't  know.  No- 
body whose  interest  is  merely  himself,  whose  sense  of 
prosperity  ends  with  his  own  position  or  business,  can 
possibly  know  what  economic  laws  are.  Ant!  that  ac- 
counts for  the  various  rules  set  up  for  linance  and 
industry — -wholly  artificial  rules— which  pass  as 
"laws,"  but  which  break  down  with  sufficient  fre- 
quency to  prove  that  they  are  ntjt  even  good  guesses. 

The  basis  of  all  economic  reasoning  is  the  h'arth 
and  its  products.  If  these  are  present,  you  have  the 
beginning.  The  process  then  l)ecomes  a  simi)le  use 
of  what  is  on  hand  in  order  that  it  mav  reproduce 
itself  in  the  necessities  of  life.  To  make  the  yield 
of  the  Karth,  in  all  its  forms,  large  enough  and  de- 
pendable enough  to  serve  as  the  basis  for  real  life,  the 
life  which  is  more  than  eating  and  sleeping,  is  the  high- 
est service  of  any  economic  system. 

Now,  just  there  is  probably  where  the  sprout  of 
the  next  develo])meiU  is  to  be  looked  for.  We  can 
make  things — why,  the  problem  of  production  is  one, 
of  the  most  brilliant  instances  of  human  ingt-nuitv.  We 
can  make  any  number  of  dilYerent  sort  of  tilings  b\- 
the  millions.  The  material  side  of  our  life  is  si)len- 
didly  provided  for.  There  are  enouj^ii  processes  and 
im])rovements  now  pigeonholed  and  awaiting  ap])lica- 
tion,  to  bring  the  physical  side  of  life  to  almost  mil- 
lennial completeness. 

Then  what's  the  trouble?  Principally  this:  if  we 
had  advanced  t(j  a  type  of  life  which  was  not  uiainly 
material  (although,  of  course,  it  would  necessaril\' 
ri'st  on  a  material  basis),  then  our  inten-st  would 
naturally  center  there,  and  our  ouIn'  inlere>t  in  the 
underKing  material  and  economic  ])r(KH'Sses  would  be 
to  see  that  the\-  worked  right. 

just  now,  we  are  wrapped  up  in  the  things  we  are 
doing  without  hi'ing  parlicularK  coiiceniecl  about  tlu' 
reasons  why  wi'  do  them.  (  )m'  wliolr  eompctu  i\r  s\  ,- 
tem,  our  whole  creatiyc  expression,  .all  tlu-  pl;i\-  ol  our 
faculties  are  confnuMl  to  one  ot  tlu'  lown-  cli.amlii-i-s 
of   lile,   which   is   the  eliamlicr  ol    matciial   produi'lioii 


FORD    IDEALS 


and  its  by-products  of  success  and  the  going  standard 
of  wealth.  And  it  is  regarded  by  some  very  short- 
sighted people  as  being  to  their  interest  that  the  pres- 
ent system  never  shall  be  perfect  because  it  would  in- 
terfere with  the  narrow  scope  of  rivalry  which  is  now 
afforded.  It  is  perfectly  plain  why  the  outlook  upon 
a  standardized  economic  world  should  fill  some  people 
with  dismay  because  of  its  dullness. 

No  need  as  yet  to  fear  the  dullness  of  a  world 
which  is  in  perfect  economic  adjustment,  for  man- 
kind will  never  consent  to  perfect  adjustment  until  he 
finds  in  a  higher  sphere  the  same  outlet  he  now  finds 
in  the  lower  sphere.  There  was  a  time  when  part  of 
man's  business  was  to  make  fires,  and  keep  making 
fires ;  making  fires  was  a  career  to  him.  Then  can^ie 
the  time  when  higher  interests  claimed  him,  and  he 
wanted  a  fire  that  would  burn  of  itself  without  both- 
ering him.  Finally  he  put  his  fire  downstairs  in  a 
furnace  where  he  could  not  even  see  it  and  where  it 
need  not  trouble  him  more  than  once  a  day.  Lately 
he  has  been  putting  it  farther  away  still,  in  a  central 
power  house  where  it  doesn't  bother  him  at  all.  And 
it  is  all  the  time  becoming  a  more  perfect  fire.  He 
has  grown.  He  now  wants  only  the  products  of  the 
fire.  He  does  not  want  imperfections  in  his  fire  to 
distract  attention  from  his  higher  interests. 

Just  so  with  mankind;  it  will  wholly  solve  the  eco- 
nomic problem  when  it  gets  an  interest  higher  than 
the  economic  problem.  Any  kind  of  life  mankind  may 
live  needs  bread.  Therefore,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
question  of  bread  breaking  into  his  higher  interest, 
he  will  come  to  the  point  where  he  will  agree  that  the 
whole  bread  question  ought  to  be  placed  on  a  standard 
base. 


352 


Lining  Up  on  Your  Own  Side 


WE  ARE  on  the  very  threshold  of  a  new  age.  The 
dates  are  unimportant,  for  in  the  advance  of  the 
plan  of  the  ages  it  is  not  the  sharp-cut  dates,  but 
periods  of  time,  that  are  important.  Old  things  pass 
away  in  a  fading-out  process;  new  things  graduallv 
dawn.  Only  on  looking  backward  do  the  people 
usually  realize  that  "a  great  thing  took  place  back 
there."  Surprisingly  few  of  the  real  turning  points 
of  the  world  come  amid  signs  and  wonders  and  people 
standing  in  awe  of  what  is  passing.  In  the  minds  of 
most,  the  War  was  the  cataclysm,  because  it  was  noisy  ; 
but  something  greater  than  the  War,  though  mucli  less 
clamorous,  is  in  passage  now. 

It  is  neither  for  man  to  help  or  hinder,  but  hold 
himself  ready  to  do  what  is  right,  whatever  may  be 
the  circumstances.  \\'hen  the  age  begins  to  turn,  we 
are  too  late  to  stop  it,  for  the  causes  thereof  were  set 
in  motion  long  ago  and  are  now  invincible.  Xor  can 
we  help  the  new  age  be  born,  because  we  are  but 
creatures  of  months,  and  the  new  age  is  generations 
in  process  of  formation.  We  can  but  will  the  Right, 
not  for  our  particular  race  but  religion  or  nationality, 
but  the  Universal  Right,  which  harms  none,  and  in 
which  each  finds  its  own  fulfilment. . 

One  of  the  principal  human  duties  that  devolve 
during  periods  of  change  is  the  duly  of  conscious  iil- 
Icgiancc.  ^\'llat  do  you,  as  a  personality  and  /;;  your 
personality,  stand  for?  And  are  you  standing  for  it 
by  standing  with  others  who  are  standing'  for  it  ? 
These  are  (|ucsti()ns  which  are  i)ressing  home  t  rom 
many  directions  todaw  I  lie  l)ug]es  ot  Time  are 
blowing  "Ass(MnI)l\"  and  nun  are  dividing  tlieiii'^cKi'S, 
each  according  [o  the  uioral  note  within. 

It  is  not  ;i  (|ue>li()n  of  ;dlcgiancc  to  o])ii)ions  or 
programs  or  philosophic-^;  it  is  a  (juestion  ot  allegiaiu-e 
to  moralities.  A  man  may  I)e  ho])elessly  wrong  in  all 
his  opinions,   but    if    he   is   morallv    right,   he   is   ot    the 


FORD    IDEALS 


Stuff  of  the  continuinj^  order  of  life.  On  the  other 
hand  a  man  may  he  perfectly  correct  in  his  opinions 
and  knowledge,  and  yet  everything  he  does  may  col- 
lapse and  die  because  of  moral  anemia.  In  this  time 
of  change  it  is  not  a  question  of  having  the  correct 
economic  theory,  it  is  a  question  of  being  loyal  to  the 
Right.  Immoral  or  unmoral  men  never  yet  constructed 
an  enduring  social  structure,  nor  enforced  a  single 
beneficial  social  change. 

This  coming  to  conscious  allegiance  is  not  always 
a  pleasant  experience.  Especially  in  this  day  when 
everybody  is  obsessed  more  or  less  with  the  idea  of 
wanting  to  be  a  "good  fellow,"  and  when  the  flabby 
philosophy  of  "Boost"  has  reduced  us  to  spongy 
masses  of  saccharine  sweetness. 

Men  have  been  taught  to  put  even  their  moral  con- 
victions in  the  background,  indeed  to  possess  no  ob- 
structive moral  convictions,  in  order  that  a  false  show 
of  fellowship  may  be  made. 

This  fellowship  has  now  fallen  apart.  It  was  based 
on  nothing  enduring.  It  had  no  meaning  except  a 
desire  to  escape  the  penalty  for  being  "dififerent," 
which  so  many  people  fear. 

It  is  a  time  now'  when  conscious  allegiance  costs 
something,  for  it  will  mean  division,  and  the  very  first 
division  nmst  be  between  those  who  will  be  loyal  to 
moral  conviction  and  those  who  will  not.  And  this, 
quite  apart  from  the  consideration  of  persons  or  ma- 
jorities. 

The  country  has  had  considerable  experience  lately 
in  the  lining  up  of  majorities  on  questions  like  Peace 
and  Temperance,  and  because  the  majority  of  the 
people  always  believe,  as  a  matter  of  principle,  in 
Peace  and  Temperance,  it  has  been  made  to  appear 
that  moral  allegiance  is  always  just  that  easy.  It  is 
not.  The  line-up,  impressive  as  it  was.  has  brought 
us  neither  Peace  nor  Temperance ;  and  no  such  easy, 
popular  line-up  ever  will. 

The  majority  of  the  people  are  naturally  straddlers. 
They  are  not  in  the  world  to  pioneer  but  to  be  as 
happy  as  possible.  If  pioneering  in  a  cause  brings 
discomfort,  they  would  rather  not.  If  Truth  and  Er- 
ror  nieet    in   combat   before   their   gaze,    they   would 

,554 


LINING     UP     ON     VUUR    OWN     SIDK 

rather  wait  and  see  which  i)rovcs  the  stron^^er.  They 
may  have  a  lazy  faith  that  Truth  at  last  will  win,  hut 
it  may  not  he  the  time  as  yet,  and  they  do  not  wish 
to  lend  a  premature  support. 

And  yet  majorities  are  essential,  not  to  the  truth, 
hut  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  truth;  and  minori- 
ties are  essential  to  the  fructifying  of  majorities.  The 
majority  is  the  sodden  dough,  the  minority  the  yeast  ; 
it  is  the  yeast  that  changes  the  character  of  the  dough 
to  something  hetter.  Majorities  are  the  position  to 
he  taken,  as  it  were,  and  sometimes  Truth  takes  it.  and 
sometimes   Error. 

The  natural  tendency  to  straddling  inheres  in  most 
people,  and  the  exceptions  to  this  tendency  are  not  al- 
ways praiseworthy.  There  are  those  who  are  merel\ 
contrary,  hecause  they  like  it  ;  others  are  contrary  be- 
cause moral  allegiance  comi)els  them.  The  majority 
wants  to  know  if  this  thing  cannot  he  amicably  settled. 

No !  It  cannot  be  settled.  There  are  some  op- 
posites  in  the  world  that  shall  never  be  reconciled. 
There  are  some  programs  that  shall  never  be  har- 
monized. There  are  some  wars  which  must  continue 
until  one  side  is  exterminated.  And  that  is  what 
frightens  some  people.  They  want  to  be  ha])pv  ;  the\- 
want  to  live  and  let  live;  they  do  not  want  to  be 
bothered.  They  want  leave  to  enjoy  tlie  world  as  it 
is,  and  if  there  are  those  who  would  inii)rove  the 
world,  let  them  do  so,  but  not  in  a  way  lliat  interferes 
with  the  present  schedule. 

It  is  not  hard  or  hardened  nu-n  llial  tlie  world 
needs,  but  men  of  moral  liardiiiess  who  ])()ssess  s])ir- 
itual  backbones.  Men  to  whom  the  palIiaior\-  ■■])er- 
haps"  comes  too  easilw  wlio  are  so  impressed  wiili 
the  idea  of  "relativity"  that  ihey  seek  refuge  in  a 
near-vacuum,  are  men  \\h()  are  lacl<iiig  in  moral  gri>lle. 
An  Idea  may  be  ver\-  valuable  to  tliem,  ])ul  t]ie\-  are 
of  no  value  to  the  Idea.  .And  llie  world  ad\ancc<  (>nl\- 
as  Ideas  gather  belit'ving  men  about   tlieni. 

It  is  a  time  of  taking  sides.  There  is  a  gi"ow  ing 
pressure  to  that  end.  \\  hellier  men  desire  it  or  not. 
the  lime  is  ra])idl\-  ap])roaching  wlicn  tlic\"  will  be 
counted  on  one  side  or  another.  In  tlii--  count  r\.  at 
least,  it  may  be  expected  that  the  inaiorilx'  will  Imallx' 


FORD   IDEALS 


line  up  on  the  right  side,  but  it  will  be  an  impressed 
majority — impressed  by  the  iorce  without  in  alliance 
with  the  still  small  voice  within. 

To  take  sides  is  not  to  exhibit  prejudice.  That  is 
where  many  people  mistake.  The  men  who  are  freest 
from  any  taint  of  prejudice  are  those  who  have  taken 
sides  with  their  convictions,  and  stand  there  as  sen- 
tinels and  defenders. 

If  you  want  to  know  where  the  prejudice  in  the 
world  lurks,  look  where  there  is  no  taking  of  sides, 
where  everybody  is  trying  to  pretend  that  there  is 
nothing  to  take  sides  about.  That  is  where  you  will 
find  most  of  the  world's  prejudice. 

A  man  who  has  taken  sides  is  thereby  freed  from 
prejudice.  His  step  is  open,  frank,  straightforward. 
His  energies  are  free  to  flow  naturally.  But  a  man 
who  fears  to  take  a  side  finds  prejudice  grow  within 
him  like  a  cancer;  it  grows  from  the  irritation  of  an 
unexpected  antagonism  in  conflict  with  an  unexpressed 
allegiance.     It  is  suppression. 

However,  the  movement  has  set  in,  and  will  be 
complete  before  the  old  era  completely  passes  and  the 
new  begins.  Everyone  will  have  to  take  his  own  side. 
It  is  not  too  early  now  for  everyone  to  begin  to  ponder 
on  which  side  he  really  belongs,  and  whether,  morally 
belonging  to  that  side,  he  has  the  moral  hardihood  to 
give  that  side  what  belongs  to  it. 


o56 


Change  Is  Not  Always 

Progress 


STRONG  efforts  have  been  made  to  fasten  upon 
the  public  mind  the  beHef  that  newness  and 
change  spell  progress.  A  state  of  mind  has  been  gen- 
erated in  which  the  mere  statement,  "Oh,  that  is  the 
way  they  did  it  years  ago,"  is  considered  sufficient  to 
condemn  -anything.  A  fever  of  newness  has  been  ev- 
erywhere confused  with  the  spirit  of  progress. 

For  many  years  the  learned  men  who  were  sup- 
posed to  know  more  than  anyone  else  about  social 
tendencies,  were  of  the  opinion  that  there  were  mys- 
terious seasons  and  wind  currents  in  human  life,  and 
that  these  accounted  for  almost  everything,  l)ut  that 
these  seasons  were  as  unalterable  and  these  wind  cur- 
rents as  uncontrollable  as  those  of  the  natural  world. 

This  idea  has  largely  passed  away.  Most  of  the 
manifestations  which  wc  see  in  human  life  today  have 
been  started  and  promoted  by  peoj)le  who  know  ex- 
actly what  they  want  and  how  to  get  it.  Many  of  the 
so-called  "social  tendencies"  are  just  as  nnich  invented 
and  controlled  by  human  wills  as  is  the  organization 
of  a  grocery  store  or  an  oil  stock  company. 

Last  year  men  wore  hats  of  a  certain  color,  a  cer- 
tain shape,  a  certain  material.  One  year  the  tone  is 
brown,  the  next  year  green.  One  year  the  material 
is  velours,  the  next  year  felt.  One  year  a  slouchy, 
rakish  form  is  afTecled,  the  next  year  a  shape  at  once 
free  and  neat. 

Why  green  hats  last  year?  Was  it  just  an  unex- 
plainable  fanc_\-  of  the  j)ul)lic  that  it  wanted  the  color 
green  to  predominate  that  \ear?  ()f  course  not.  The 
public  had  nothing  to  say  until  the  hats  came  on  tin' 
market.  And  those  who  ])laced  the  hats  on  the  mar- 
ket had  determined  a  \ear  before  what  tlu>  jieopU- 
should  wear.  It  was  a  jjroinotion  scheme.  If  \<n\  arc 
in  the  right  circles  it  is  ]~)ossil)le  for  \-ou  to  get  a  ]-)retty 


FORD   IDEALS 


accurate  idea  of  what  the  crowds  on  our  streets  will 
look  like  for  several  years  in  the  future.  These  are 
matters  of  engineering,  not  of  free  taste  and  tendency. 

The  reasons,  of  course,  are  commercial.  Hats  are 
no  better  than  they  ever  were ;  materially  they  are  not 
as  good,  except  when  special  prices  are  paid.  The 
purpose  is  that  a  man  shall  buy  several  hats  a  year — 
four  or  five.  It  is  not  planned  that  any  of  them  shall 
last  over  the  year.  In  case,  however,  the  quality  does 
outlast  the  year,  the  style  is  changed,  and  that,  of 
course,  with  people  who  are  easily  influenced,  puts  a 
perfectly  good  hat  out  of  commission. 

So  that  the  basis  of  more  than  one  line  of  business, 
involving  vast  quantities  of  material  and  human  en- 
ergy, is  built  not  upon  the  durability  of  that  material 
and  the  serviceability  of  that  labor,  but  only  upon 
the  decree  of  some  interested  parties  that  this  is  "old" 
and  that  is  "new." 

Next  to  the  fiction  that  gold  is  wealth,  this  fiction 
of  "style"  is  one  of  the  most  potent  devices  for  rob- 
bing the  public  purse.  Both  fictions  originated  with 
and  are  propagated  by  the  same  groups  and  for  the 
same  purposes. 

These  remarks  are  only  illustrative  of  what  now 
follows :  There  is  just  as  deliberate  a  plan  to  flood 
the  popular  mind  with  changed  ideas,  and  thus  bring 
it  into  a  condition  where  it  will  not  think  anything 
that  is  not  "new,"  and  where  it  can  easily  be  led  away 
from  any  truth  that  may  perchance  be  labelled  "old." 

This  course  is  most  successful  among  those  who 
do  not  think- — and  whether  these  are  a  majority  or  a 
minority  is  left  to  the  reader's  own  observation  and 
judgment. 

The  efi^ect,  however,  is  harmful,  and  in  time  will 
prove  ruinous.  The  jack-in-the-box  thinker  is  not  im- 
pressive simply  because  his  utterance  belongs  to 
today  instead  of  yesterday.  Everything  we  have  is 
yesterday's,  even  to  the  bread  we  eat — which  is  liter- 
ally last  year's ;  and  even  to  the  political  ideals  we 
share — which  are  literally  last  century's,  and  earlier. 
We  are  not  such  "smart  folks"  as  we  think  we  are. 
The  world  today  is  full  of  the  sound  of  crashing  fail- 
ures built  on  fresh,  upstart  theories.    The  trouble  with 

358 


CHANGE    IS    NOT    AI.WAVS    I'RO(;RKSS 

US  today  is  that  we  have  been  unfaithful  to  the  White 
Man's  traditions  and  privileges.  We  have  permitted 
a  corrupt  orientalism  to  overspread  us,  sapping  our 
courage  and  demoralizing  our  ideals.  There  has  al- 
ways been  a  White  Man's  Code,  and  we  have  failed 
to  follow  it.  It  is  natural  for  those  outside  the  White 
Man's  tradition  to  invent  their  destructive  devices  and 
ideas,  but  it  is  unnatural  for  the  \\'hite  Man  to  fall  an 
easy  victim  to  them. 

Capital  and  labor  are  apart  today,  in  spite  of  the 
natural  tendency  of  the  White  Man's  Code  to  bring 
them  together,  because  an  oriental  idea  has  been 
thrust  in  between  them  for  the  poisoning  of  both. 

The  White  Man's  Code  has  always  been  to  "do 
things" ;  the  accomplishment  of  useful  results  is  his 
highest  satisfaction.  For  that  reason  the  W^hite  Man 
has  been  throughout  history  pre-eminently  the  Doer. 
But  an  orientalism  has  crept  in  under  cover  of  a  social 
discovery,  which  has  proved  progressively  destructive 
of  everything  it  has  touched — the  professions,  man- 
agement and  industries. 

Industrial  leaders  have  been  poisoned  to  the  ex- 
tent that  some  of  them  look  on  their  industries  as 
"money  makers."  instead  of  plow-makers,  or  chair- 
makers,  or  clothing-makers.  That  is  the  new  code: 
"Get  the  mone\'."  If  you  can  get  the  money  quicker 
by  destroying  the  business,  then  destrov  the  business  ! 

Professional  life  has  also  been  infected  with  the 
same  idea.  Lawyers  once  bad  clients  aiul  doctors 
patients:  now  tbcv  have  "customers."  Tt  is  a  sacl 
drop,  but  it  is  i)rccisely  the  condition  desirerl  b\-  tlie 
orientalists  who  are  l)usv  injecting  "new  idea^"  int(^  tlie 
public  mind  today. 

In  industry,  the  man  who  still  takes  pride  in  his 
day's  work,  who  really  looks  for  satisfaction  in  tlie 
labor  of  his  hands,  is  rated  by  hi'^  fellows  as  a  "boob." 
Tie  is  a  "back  munber."  i'^vcn  the  Anicrican  boy 
coming  into  life  no  longer  l)eh\'\-cs  that  nu'iMt  coinits 
for  anvtliing ;  he  is  inocuIattM]  b\-  the  oriental  virus 
which  causes  him  to  pull  hack,  ix'Uiain  -iillcn  and 
stupid,  and  give  as  littl(>  as  he  can. 

.\t  I'^llis  Island  where  foniierK-  tlic  iuiniiL:rant  u--c(l 
to   come   with    shinini:   t'vcs   and   hopeful    heart,    what 


FORD    IDEALS 


do  we  now  see?  A  horde  of  people  who  have  been 
systematically  educated  beforehand  in  the  thought  that 
the  United  States  is  "a  capitalistic  country,"  not  to  be 
enjoyed  but  to  be  destroyed;  and  the  very  first  lit- 
erature put  into  their  hands  on  American  soil  con- 
veys the  same  idea.  We  read  a  great  many  touching 
stories  in  fiction  papers  about  the  hopefulness  and 
longing  of  the  immigrant.  The  immigrants  we  have 
been  getting  for  several  years  have  no  hopes  nor 
cheams:  they  have  a  program. 

All  of  these  things  come  from  the  same  source — a 
subtle  orientalism  that  is  breaking  down  the  rugged 
directness  of  the  White  Man's  Code. 

We  ought  to  go  back  to  it.  The  type  that  made 
this  country  is  still  here,  but  its  backbone  needs  stiffen- 
ing. It  needs  to  hear  the  call  of  its  own  race.  It  needs 
to  seal  its  ears  against  the  false  cry  of  "Peace,  Peace, 
when  there  is  no  peace."  That  which  we  used  to  re- 
cite in  the  village  school — "Eternal  Vigilance  Is  the 
Price  of  Liberty,"  is  more  than  a  saying,  it  is  a  Truth ; 
and  its  truth  is  being  proved  now,  when  Liberty  is 
slipping  away  because  of  opr  lack  of  vigilance,  not 
only,  but  our  impatience  zvith  anything  that  requires 
vigilance. 

The  W' hite  Man's  Code  has  three  main  points : 
Square  Dealing ;  Fear  of  God  and  Absolute  Fearless- 
ness of  Man;  Unrelenting  Vigilance. 

These  three  points,  if  practiced  today,  would  cleanse 
our  country  of  every  lurking  foe.  And  the  practice 
of  the  last  point  would  keep  it  clean. 


In  Bondage  to  a  liepulation 


IT  IS  not  with  the  distinction  hetvvcen  reputation 
and  character  that  this  page  deals  today,  althongli 
that  distinction  may  well  he  kepi  in  mind  during 
its  perusal.  Re{)utation  is  what  peojjle  think  a  man 
is ;  character  is  what  he  really  is.  Usually  reinitation 
and  character  go  along  hand  in  hand ;  what  ])eoj)le 
think  a  man  is,  he  is  very  likely  to  he;  hut  not  always. 
'Jdiere  are  just  a  suflicient  numher  of  differences  he- 
tween  men's  reputations  and  characters,  to  make  a 
sweejiing  statement  impossible,  except  to  emphasize  the 
distinction. 

One  distinction  not  often  thought  of  is  this:  the 
people  make  a  man's  re])utation  ;  the  man  himself  makes 
his  character.  Rejnitation  is  repute.  Rci)ute  is  just 
what  the  people  think  over  and  over  again  ;  a  repeti- 
tion of  though.t.  a  multiplication  of  opinion.  It  is  clear, 
then,  that  reputation  is  something  the  jx^ople  give  to 
a  man.  Tie  himself,  of  course,  must  he  sufficiently 
active  or  interesting  or  important  to  give  the  initial 
impulse  to  their  thought;  I)ut,  after  all,  it  is  their 
thought  that  paints  his  public  portrait. 

The  public  makes  mistakes.  It  must  have  its  devils 
and  its  angels,  and  its  devils  must  be  very  bad,  even 
as  its  angels  must  be  very  good.  The  hankering  of 
the  public  after  a  good  man  to  beliexe  in  is  very  pa- 
thetic. P>eing  too  wi^e  to  have  aiixthing  to  do  with 
(jod,  tbev  set  up  a  -tatcsinan.  a  ])hi]aiubn)pisl.  a  ])ub- 
lic  benefactor  of  anv  kind,  and  then  they  begin  to 
wea\e  about  him  a  romantic  robe  of  dreams  until  he 
becomes  a  cross  between  Santa  (dans  and  (iabricl. 

Xo  nirm  is  e\er  Sd  gnod  as  tlu'  jiublic  wants  its 
good  idols  to  be;  and  no  man  is  vwv  -o  bad  as  tlu' 
public  wants  its  bad  idols  to  be.  llu'  rca-^oii  is  that 
the  public  givc>  repute,  and  not  the  man  bini-^elt. 

Rc])utation  i<.  of  course,  an  imjioriant  point,  but 
it  is  n(U  of  tirst  importance.  A  man  wlio  is  alwax's 
careful  (^f  his  reputation  usnall}'  ba->  n<it  much  to  spare, 

MA 


FORD    IDEALS 


Reputations  are  such  partial  things  anyway.  Here 
is  a  man  who  has  a  reputation  for  ready  wit.  An- 
other, during  some  retentive  period  of  his  mental  life, 
stored  up  much  knowledge  of  the  sort  which  quickly 
turns  to  attic  lumber — he  has  a  reputation  for  learn- 
ing. Another,  because  of  some  act  performed  in  a 
moment  of  indignation,  gets  the  reputation  of  being 
quick-tempered  or  courageous.  Another,  a  normal 
man,  not  self-centered,  but  living  free  in  mind  and 
body,  does  for  a  friend,  without  thinking  of  it,  an  act 
involving  danger  to  himself,  but  effecting  the  other's 
salvation.  He  awakes  to  find  himself  a  hero.  There 
is  nothing  funnier  than  finding  oneself  a  hero.  One 
has  read  of  heroes,  admired  them,  dreamed  one's  boy- 
ish dreams  of  emulating  them,  but  we  supposed  that 
heroism  was  something  very  grand  to  feel.  We  thought 
the  hero  felt  heroic,  felt  as  heroic  indeed  as  the  hero 
looked  upon  the  stage.  But  he  doesn't.  The  hero 
discovers  for  himself  the  immense  difference  between 
reputation  and  the  inner  sense  thereof. 

It  is  only  part  of  the  man  that  is  involved  in  the 
reputation,  good  or  bad.  G.  K.  C.  has  a  reputation 
as  a  writer;  but  he  is  more  than  that.  M.  J.  P.  has 
the  reputation  of  being  a  good  mender  of  boots,  pro- 
fessionally a  cobbler ;  but  he  is  more  than  that.  Rep- 
utations are  such  partial  things. 

But  it  is  only  when  reputations  l)ecome  something 
to  trade  ujx)n  that  they  begin  to  bind  men. 

There  are  some  men  who  regard  their  reputations 
as  assets,  who  ought  to  regard  them  as  liabilities,  and 
they  are  "good"  reputations,  too,  in  the  moral  sense. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  it  is  the  "bad"  reputation 
that  is  always  the  liability.  Not  at  all.  Good  repu- 
tations sometimes  hang  like  millstones  around  a  man's 
neck;  they  are,  in  reality,  the  millstones  on  which  his 
epitaph  is  already  carved.  A  man  has  a  reputation 
for  cautiousness.  Well,  cautiousness  is  only  a  partial 
virtue.  Sometimes  a  man  ought  to  be  cautious,  and 
sometimes  greatly  daring.  Sometimes  he  ought  to 
walk  across  the  street  and  sometimes  he  ought  to  run. 
To  commit  himself  to  follow  either  course  all  the  time 
would  be  equal  to  a  prison  sentence. 

Other   men   have  a   reputation   for  what   is   called 

362 


IN    BONDAGE    TO    A     REPUTATION 

"common  sense."  Common  sense  is,  as  the  term  im- 
plies, the  common  possession  of  common  people.  It 
is  very  valuable.  The  majority  of  people  are  actuated 
by  common  sense.  They  are  conservative.  The  ma- 
jority must  be  conserzmtive.  That  is  the  majority's 
business — to  have  and  to  hold,  to  protect  and  conserve 
the  good  of  the  past.  If  it  were  not  for  the  conserv^a- 
tive  we  should  have  nothing  at  all.  He  is  the  brother 
who  stays  at  home  and  keeps  the  family  farm  in  shape 
while  his  other  brother  roams  afield,  sometimes  as  a 
prodigal.  In  the  end,  all  radicals  come  home  to  the 
conservatives;  that  is  where  conservatives  justify  them- 
selves. 

But,  see  what  a  hindrance  a  reputation  for  com- 
mon sense  may  become.  A  man  says  to  himself,  "I 
have  always  been  known  as  a  man  of  common  sense. 
I  have  always  done  what  most  people  do,  with  an  ele- 
ment of  protective  caution  thrown  in.  People  do  busi- 
ness with  me  because  they  know  I  am  'safe  and  sane.' 
Yet,  here  I  have  a  vision  which  I  know  is  safe  with 
a  higher  safety  and  sane  with  a  higher  sanity  than  any 
of  my  neighbors  know,  and  I  am  moved  to  follow 
this  vision — but  if  1  do.  ])ang  goes  my  reputation  for 
common  sense !" 

In  such  an  instance,  a  reputation  is  the  death  war- 
rant of  a  man's  growth.  He  is  not  livUuj  up  to  his 
real  self ;  he  is  Ik'ing  doi<'n  to  the  self  that  he  was 
twenty  or  tiiirty  years  ago.  He  is  simi)ly  refusing  to 
outgrow  the  features  of  the  j)ortrait  called  "reputa- 
tion"' which  public  opinion  has  sculptured  in  the  gal- 
lery of  ])ublic  imagination.  l^\»r  that  is  all  public  o])in- 
ion  is.  and  that  is  all  fame  is.  and  that  is  all  rei)uta- 
tion  is.  just  public  imagination. 

Too  many  men  are  afraid  of  being  fools.  It  is 
granted,  of  course,  that  pul)lic  t)pinion  is  a  powerful 
])olice  influence  for  those  who  need  it.  Perha])>  it 
may  be  true  that  the  majority  of  men  need  the  re- 
straint of  public  opinion.  In  this  class  of  cases,  pub- 
lic opinion  keeps  a  man  better  tban  he  would  other- 
wise be — if  not  better  morally,  at  least  better  as  tar 
as  bis  social  desirabilit\'  is  concerned.  I'ut  doubtle^-' 
there  are  cases,  .and  nian\'  men  feel  tbe  trutli  nt  it. 
where  reputation  keep^  a  man  from  I)(.'ing  as  gon.l  and 

36.? 


FORD   IDEALS 

as  useful  as  he  might  be,  because  in  service  he  would 
be  led  into  the  "unusual,  don't  you  know." 

Well,  it  is  not  a  bad  thing  to  be  a  fool  for  righteous- 
ness' sake.  The  best  of  it  is  that  such  fools  usually 
live  long  enough  to  prove  that  they  were  not  fools, 
or  the  work  they  have  begun  lives  long  enough  to  prove 
they  were  not  foolish ;  and  so  the  fool  for  righteous- 
ness' sake  is  revenged  on  Reputation  after  all. 

Heaven  help  the  man  who  has  been  jwisoned  by 
regularity !  Not  that  belonging  to  the  regula'rs,  and 
being  regular  in  everything  from  agriculture  to  re- 
ligion is  an  evil  thing — not  at  all.  If  a  man  delib- 
erately chooses  and  selects  a  place  among  the  "regu- 
lars" for  the  good  he  can  do  them,  very  good.  The 
regulars  need  their  servants  and  prophets,  too.  Many 
men  are  justified  in  i^aying,  'T  cannot  do  that,  because 
it  would  injure  the  influence  which  I  now  possess  in 
this  special  channel  of  work."  There  are  men  who. 
for  the  sake  of  moral  usefulness  among  men,  must  make 
deliberate  sacrifice  of  certain  otherwise  desirable  things, 
and  to  these  rightfully  belongs  their  meed  of  honor. 

This  is  not  the  class  of  men  to  be  warned.  These 
are  not  victims  of  regularity ;  they  are  missionaries  to 
it.  Others,  however,  who  believe  that  the  present  form 
of  regularity  is  the  eternal  pattern,  who  are  in  nervous 
fear  of  being  so  regular  that  they  succeed  only  in  being 
stupid,  to  them  there  might  l)e  given  a  stimulus  to  forego 
the  bugaboo  Reputation,  and  let  their  native  decent 
impulses  expand  to  fill  the  pattern  thev  were  meant 
to  fill. 


.■^64 


Depression,  First  Step 
Back  to  INornialcy 


TLMES  of  piping  prosperity  are  often  bad  for  busi- 
ness. Strange  as  it  may  sound,  this  statement  will 
ai)pear  very  plain  and  true  upon  a  little  consideration. 
We  may  say  what  we  please  about  the  business  condi- 
tions which  have  hit  the  country  during  the  last  two 
months,  but  the  real  damage  was  done  when  everybody 
.said  that  everything  was  lovely  and  the  gocjse  hung 
high. 

By  the  same  token,  this  period  of  depression  through 
which  we  have  been  going  has  been  good  for  business. 
The  best  thing  that  could  have  happened — it  did  not 
hai)])en  too  soon.  Business  is  on  a  better  basis  today 
than  it  was  three  months  ago  ;  it  will  be  on  a  better  basis 
next  month  than  it  would  have  been  had  not  a  halt 
been  called. 

These  are  simple  ideas,  but  they  are  worth  turning 
over. 

You  can  see  the  good  effects  of  poor  business  by 
just  looking  at  the  stores,  the  corner  stores,  and  tiic  big 
downtown  concerns.  It  was  not  long  ago  that  the  ordi- 
nary frugal  buyer  was  somewhat  in  contempt.  Clerks 
caught  the  contagion  of  the  profueers.  and  it  was  "P>uy 
it  or  leave  it''  almost  wherever  you  went,  'flu-  morale 
of  sales])eople  slumped  at  a  terrific  rate,  .and  that  is  a 
]:)retty  serious  thing  for  business. 

Not  so  verv  long  ago  the  coal  merchant  sat  in  his 
office  with  the  air  of  a  king  dis])cn>ing  fa\■o^-^.  Mi-- 
attitude  in  many  case<  was.  "1  don't  know  whether  1 
will  sell  you  or  not-  I'll  think  it  o\er."'  It  wa-  i>ad 
for  him  and  for  his  cuslonu'r>.  \\  lien  any  hn-inc--- 
man  in  anv  line  of  business  bet-onu'^  in<K'i)eii(K'nt  ol  the 
])ul)lic,  or  e\en  thinks  he  i-~.  it  i--  a  calamity  t^r  lii< 
business. 

In  some  industries  all   that   has  remained    I'l.r  --.I'e- 


FORD    IDEALS 

men  and  managers  to  do  during  the  last  few  years  has 
been  to  take  orders  and  deposits,  and  adopt  the  air  of, 
''We  may  let  you  have  it  in  about  six  months — if  y©u 
deposit  enough  now."  Orders  came  without  effort. 
Customers  were  doing  all  the  clamoring  and  worrying. 
Whereas  once  it  was  the  customer  who  favored  the 
merchant  by  dealing  with  him,  conditions  changed  until 
it  was  the  merchant  who  favored  the  customer  by  sell- 
ing to  him. 

Now  all  that  is  bad  for  business.  Monopoly  is  bad 
for  business.  Profiteering  is  bad  for  business.  The 
lack  of  necessity  to  hustle  is  bad  for  business.  Business 
is  never  so  good  and  sound  and  healthy  as  when,  like  a 
chicken,  it  must  do  a  certain  amount  of  scratching  for 
what  it  gets. 

Things  were  coming  too  easily.  There  was  a  let- 
down of  the  principle  that  an  honest  relation  ought  to 
obtain  between  values  and  prices.  The  public  no  longer 
had  to  be  "catered  to."  There  was  even  a  "public-be- 
damned"  attitude  in  many  places. 

It  was  intensely  bad  for  business,  all  that  kind  of 
prosperity. 

But  there  has  come  a  change.  Tiie  era  of  ramj>ant 
prosperity  so-called  died  down.  The  reckoning-up  time 
came.  Customers  no  longer  besieged  the  doors.  Indeed, 
customers  have  a  memory,  and  they  remembered  that 
in  the  heyday  of  trade  they  were  treated  rather  cava- 
lierly. IMany  merchants  are  discovering  today  that  he 
was  a  wise  man  who  was  just  as  anxious  to  serve  and 
please  his  customers  when  trade  was  brisk,  as  he  is  now 
when  trade  is  a  little  slower. 

The  best  point  of  all  is  that  this  period  of  slack- 
ness is  showing  up  the  damage  which  false  pros])erity 
did  to  business  ethics  and  efficiency.  A  good  business 
is  one  that  can  sail  along  comfortably  in  the  face  of 
adverse  gales.  Since  1914  almost  any  fool  could  do 
business.  There  was  more  business  to  be  done  than 
there  were  business  devices  with  which  to  do  it. 

It  will  be  generally  conceded  that  the  ])erio(l  of  so- 
called  ])rosperity  had  a  very  deleterious  effect  on  sales- 
manship. Salesmanship  is  more  tlian  taking  orders,  but 
that  is  about  all  it  has  amounted  to  during  the  last  six 
or  seven  vears. 


DEPRESSION/ FIRST  STEP  BACK  TO   NORMALCY 

When  the  rush  of  prosperity  began  to  dwindle  and 
then  to  cease,  and  it  became  necessary  to  pull  in  the 
collar  rather  than  hold  back  in  the  breeching,  then  was 
the  test.  It  was  found  in  many  cases  that  salesmanship 
had  softened.  The  easy-chair  and  order-taking  habit 
had  demoralized  it.  It  could  not  stand  for  the  rough, 
hard  work  of  going  out  and  being  refused,  and  being 
refused  again. 

So,  it  has  been  a  blessing  for  business,  all  round, 
this  period  of  depression ;  it  has  .shown  uj)  the  flabby 
spots.  It  has  disclosed  those  people  who  were  content 
comfortably  to  watch  the  wheels  go  round,  but  were 
not  very  handy  in  getting  out  and  making  the  wheels 
go  round. 

We  were  getting  to  a  place  where  no  one  cared  about 
costs  except  the  consumer — and  he  didn't  count.  Not 
only  did  no  one  make  a  move  toward  reduction  of  costs, 
they  actually  dreaded  to  think  of  the  time  when  it  would 
have  to  come.  Business  lay  abed,  like  a  l:)()y  who  hates 
to  get  up  and  go  into  the  cold  barn  to  do  the  chores. 
Business  was  soft  with  too  much  good  living. 

Nothing  has  ha])j)ened  in  our  history  {o  render  out 
of  date  the  business  phil()soi)hy  (jf  Benjamin  Franklin. 
Poor  Richard's  yXlnianac  is  still  the  best  business  com- 
pendium. The  old  .American  virtues  of  tlirift  and  in- 
dustry have  no  successors  or  su1)^titutcs.  P)usiness  suc- 
cess is  still  a  matter  of  making  friends  by  scrricc,  and 
not  a  case  of  cornering  neccssitnus  people  in  such  a  way 
that  they  will  have  to  come  to  you. 

Free  trade  still  exists  in  tlic  local  sense.  Trade  will 
always  remain  free  regardles.^  of  monopoly  or  combine. 
I'rade  gra\'itates  towartl  the  man  who  has  the  desire 
and  the  will  to  ])lcase  and  serve  those  wlio  need  what 
he  can  give.  When  a  man  gets  bigger  than  his  l)usiness, 
when  he  begins  to  think  that  he  has  got  things  coming 
his  way,  and  therefore  may  rela.x.  be  is  in  a  bad  state. 

iM-erv  successful  business  is  troiil)led  with  that  sort 
of  disease — com])lete  satisfactif'ii  anij  relaxation.  It 
should  be  rutlile-^sly  exterminated.  ii  thi--  (li--ea.->e 
strikes  the  principal  leader  of  the  1)U>mu'-<.  he  should 
retire  or  be  rcnioxed  as  (|uickl\-  as  an_\one  el>e  wmild  he. 
Thai  kind  of  success  is  \cr\-  had   |or  business. 

\'oun!''  men  ha\e  l)een  a'-kin;/  for  a  nunil'i'r  oi  vear-. 


FORD   IDEALS 

whether  there  was  any  possible  chance  for  them  to  start 
for  themselves  in  a  world  which  is  apparently  so  com- 
pletely organized.  Sometimes  the  answers  were  encour- 
aging, sometimes  not. 

But  now  they  can  see  for  themselves.  It  is  any 
man's  game  now  who  will  play  it  according  to  the  old- 
time  rule  of  "value  received."  A  business  man  is  a 
servant,  and  when  he  gets  too  rich,  or  too  high  and 
mighty  for  that,  then  something  happens,  and  some  one 
else  gets  a  chance.  And  that  is  occurring  on  a  large 
scale  now.    Business  is  weeiling  out  the  over-ripe  ones. 

Thus  it  comes,  reasonably  enough,  that  a  period  of 
bad  business  is  really  a  good  thing  for  business,  because 
it  drives  business  back  to  its  sounder  fundamentals  of 
honor  in  negotiations,  quality  in  merchandise,  and  will- 
ingness in  service. 

It  is  a  splendid  lesson  for  the  younger  group  of 
business  men.  They  will  keep  their  heads  better  during 
the  next  rise  of  commercial  prosperity.  They  will  be 
taught  to  trust  more  confidently  in  those  principles  of 
business  which  are  as  indispensable  in  jjrisk  times  as  in 
slow  times. 

And,  on  the  whole,  it  has  been  an  easy  lesson.  It 
might  have  been  much  more  severe.  It  will  have  been 
worth  all  it  cost  to  all  classes  of  society,  if  only  we  have 
sense  enough  to  remember  it. 

We  have  been  influenced  too  much  by  the  grab-bag 
philosophy.  We  are  making  careers,  and  that  is  incom- 
patible with  the  practice  of  "getting  while  the  getting 
is  good."     Such  getting  is  not  good  for  long. 


368 


Flattery  Used  as  Bribery 


AMONG  the  dishonest  ways  of  getting  along  is  the 
practice  of  working  on  the  self-esteem  of  men  by 
praising  them  to  such  a  point  that  they  feel  inclined 
to  favor  you.  Some  crooks  chloroform  their  victims  to 
rob  them;  others  just  suffocate  their  good  judgment 
with  praise.  The  first  method  has  at  least  the  virtue 
of  directness  ;  the  second,  even  at  its  best,  is  suspiciously 
on  the  other  side  of  frankness. 

We  have  developed  in  this  country  a  habit  which 
must  be  modified  by  honesty,  and  that  is  the  habit  of 
back-slapping  and  indiscriminate  boosting,  the  glad 
hand  and  the  oily  compliment.  These  never  did  go 
down  with  men  of  hard  horse  sense,  but  they  had  a 
considerable  and  pernicious  influence  on  young  men. 
because  young  men  naturally  thought  that  this  was  the 
standard  way  to  do  things. 

Now,  this  is  a  situation  which  more  niatiu'c  business 
men  have  observed  with  something  of  impatience  and 
something  of  misgiving.  It  must  not  be  assumed,  how- 
ever, that  they  regretted  to  see  a  more  human  tone  come 
in  business  relations.  Nor  must  it  l)e  assumed  that  thev 
protest  because  their  ideal  of  a  business  man  is  one  who 
is  strong  as  steel  and  just  as  cold,  who  cannot  be  bent, 
nor  e\en  melted  except  in  the  hottest  lires. 

There  is  just  the  danger,  that  returning  troni  the 
orgy  of  back-sla|)j)ing  and  artilicial  good-tellow-lr.p 
which  has  marked  the  last  few  years  -the  era  in  which 
the  "smootli"  person  '"got  by" — we  shall  rexert  to  the 
o])posite  extreme  of  coldne.-s  and  hrutalit\ .  \oi  at  all. 
l\xtremes  are  always  to  be  avoided.  I'nt  \vliate\er  the 
attitude,  siiwcrity  is  desirable  about  all  things.  And 
it  is  ju-t  the  lack  of  siiiccrily  which  made  so  much  o! 
this  ])rai>e-mongering  to  be  nau>eating  to  ])lain  nun. 

There  are  two  great  barrier>  to  the  tree  intereour^t' 
of  minds,  to  absolute  tran>i)arency  of  conduct,  and  thev 
are,  first,  a  designing  attitude  towanl  another;  and 
second,  that  which  the  dchigning  attitude  hrei'd^,  namely, 

.!69 


FORD   IDEALS 

suspicion  in  the  mind  of  the  man  against  whom  the  de- 
sign is  laid.  They  are  both  unwholesome  mentally,  and 
disruptive  socially.  They  constitute  the  major  part  of 
the  silent  warfare  of  life. 

Now,  all  men  like  praise.  If  a  man  says  he  doesn't, 
he  should  examine  himself  again.  He  may  not  like  to 
be  praised  to  his  face.  He  may  be  irritated  by  the 
fawning  form  in  which  praise  is  ofifered  him.  He  may 
be  angered  by  his  knowledge  that  the  offered  praise  is 
insincere  and  has  an  ulterior  motive.  He  may  be  sick- 
ened by  the  hollo wness  of  it.  A  man  who  had  done 
something  very  well  was  once  pained  by  the  praise  he 
received.  He  said,  "They  all  praised  me  for  the  wrong 
thing."  They  had  not  considered  his  work  enough  to 
see  the  real  point  in  it.  And  what  he  wanted  was  not 
the  sticky  sweetness  of  personal  compliments,  but  dis- 
criminating and  appreciative  consideration  of  his  work. 

All  men  like  their  good  work  to  be  praised — but 
that  is  quite  a  different  thing.  There  is  something 
normal  and  wholesome  about  friends  being  able  to  meet 
frankly  in  consideration  of  a  piece  of  work. 

So,  if  a  man  says  he  dislikes  praise,  he  must  define 
what  he  means.  When  a  man  is  able  to  praise  his  own 
work  to  himself,  to  behold  the  work  of  his  hand  and 
take  pleasure  in  it,  he  is  taking  praise,  just  as  much 
as  if  he  eagerly  drank  in  compliments  spoken  by 
another. 

Now,  the  evil  of  life  consists  in  all  these  wholesome 
and  pleasurable  sensibilities  being  misused  to  selfish 
ends.  No  matter  what  department  of  human  nature 
you  look  into,  the  evil  you  see  comes  from  selfish  mis- 
use. And  so  men  have  brought  in  evil  through  the  gate 
of  praise. 

If  you  see  that  a  man's  weakness  is  flattery,  and  you 
take  advantage  of  that  to  manipulate  his  judgment  and 
his  will,  you  are  following  precisely  the  same  tactics 
as  the  man  who  sees  another's  purse  conveniently  ex- 
posed, and  takes  it. 

If  you  see  that  a  man  is  built  of  such  malleable 
material  that  a  friendly,  complimentary  advance  dis- 
arms him  and  lays  him  open  to  your  power,  and  you 
deliberately  thus  disarm  him  for  the  accomplishment 
of  your  design,  whatever  it  may  be,  good  or  bad,  you 


FLATTERY     USED    AS    BRIBERY 


are  working  along  a  dangerous  line;  you  are  exalting 
yourself  to  a  place  which  no  human  being  is  entitled  to 
assume  toward  another  for  reasons  of  profit.  It  is  a 
serious  thing  to  descend  to  this  kind  of  strategy  or 
trickery  even  for  the  best  purposes. 

No  one  takes  these  tactics  without  sacrificing  a  great 
deal  of  sincerity.  And  besides,  they  are  not  necessary. 
There  is  nothing  that  this  sort  of  strategy  can  accom- 
plish, that  frankness,  honesty  of  purpose  and  even  blunt 
truthfulness  of  statement  cannot  better  accomplish. 
The  straight  open  way  is  healthier  for  the  mind  of  the 
man  who  is  making  the  advance,  and  it  cements  a  better 
relation  with  the  man  who  is  being  advanced  upon. 

Now,  inasmuch  as  there  are  still  in  the  world  many 
hold-overs  from  the  last  regime,  who  still  trust  in  the 
strategy  of  the  tongue,  it  is  just  as  well  that  young 
men,  especially  young  business  men,  should  be  on  their 
guard.  Instinctively,  the  majority  of  them  are.  There 
is  something  inside  the  normal  human  being — a  sort  of 
spiritual  submarine  detector — which  warns  of  the  ap- 
proach of  hollow  words.  Many  lies  are  told :  very  few 
lies  get  across.  Many  deceptions  are  planned  ;  compara- 
tively few  succeed.  The  interior  detector  sounds  an 
alarm  in  most  people.     They  are  protected. 

But  there  is  among  young  men  a  native  kindness 
which  prevents  them  revealing  the  inifiostor  to  himself. 
When  it  is  said  that  very  few  lies  get  across,  that  is 
true ;  but  the  liar  does  not  know  it ;  people  whose  detec- 
tor warns  them  do  not  always  tell  him  what  they  think. 
They  sometimes  act  as  if  they  believed  the  lie — and  so. 
insincerity  creeps  in  from  the  other  side.  too. 

The  young  business  man  will  more  fully  tru'^t  the 
older  man  who  does  not  flatter  him  and  who  does  not 
follow  his  flattery  with  j)rcsumptions  on  tlic  young 
man's  favor.  Thousands  of  people  are  tliat  way  :  ihey 
pay  a  compliment,  and  they  believe  that  constitutes  an 
admission  ticket  to  special  jM-iN'ileges.  Deny  tbem  the 
privilege,  and  they  go  away  sa_\ing  (juite  (ii)i)o>ite  thins^^s 
about  the  person  they  ho]x>(l  to  "work."  It  is  the  mean- 
est kind  of  cadging,  this  ])as>ing  of  conii)linient-~.  and 
then  waiting  until  the  coninlimented  man  is  so  commit- 
ted l)v  the  reception  of  the  praises  that  he  cannot  say 
"no"'    without    embarrassment.      That    is    llie    meanest 


FORD    IDEALS 


kind  of  trickery.  But  young  men  who  have  been 
tricked  that  way  soon  learn  the  technique  of  it  and  are 
on  their  guard. 

A  certain  delicacy  of  character  would  teach  the 
self-seeking  person  that  it  is  a  vast  presumption  to  offer 
praise  to  anyone,  and  the  only  consideration  that  can 
justify  it  is  its  sincerity  and  unselfishness.  Otherwise, 
it  is  a  profanation  of  one  of  the  finest  forms  of  human 
relationship. 

,If  a  young  man  in  business  is  wise  he  will  pay  less 
attention  to  those  who  flatter  his  self-esteem,  and  more 
to  those  who  stir  his  energies.  A  good,  well-balanced 
critic  who  is  looking  to  the  success  of  the  work  and  not 
to  the  feelings  of  the  men  who  may  be  at  the  head  of 
it,  is  the  best  kind  of  friend  for  a  young  business  man 
to  have.  And  if  the  young  business  man  is  keen  he  will 
see  that  such  a  one's  interest  xmd  attention  is  the  most 
real,  yet  the  most  delicate  form  of  friendship  and 
praise.  It  is  strong.  It  is  based  on  frankness.  AND 
it  will  be  there  though  failure  and  unfavorable  criticism 
overwhelm  the  project. 

Divide  between  your  flatterers  and  your  friends,  and 
you  already  have  a  chart  by  which  to  sail. 


.?7<? 


Inflated  Prosperity  the  Real 
''Bad  Tones" 


ONE  of  the  connnon  habits  people  fall  into  is  to  ex- 
plain everything  by  the  term  "business."  We 
explain  depression  by  saying  that  "business  is  bad." 
We  explain  far-reaching  changes  by  saying  that  "busi- 
ness is  undergoing  a  readjustment."  We  look  hope- 
fully toward  the  time  "when  business  will  pick  up 
again." 

The  mistcike  is  rather  childlike,  as  if  we  should  de- 
clare that  the  thermometer  governs  the  weather.  To 
be  sure,  the  thermometer  is  "down"  when  it  is  cold,  and 
"up"  when  it  is  warm,  but  the  thermometer  is  acted 
upon  by  other  forces ;  it  does  not  act  upon  them. 

Business  is  a  barometer.  It  registers  various  condi- 
tions. But  it  is  not  the  master-force  in  the  world.  It 
is  a  sign  of  life  and  creative  activity;  more  than  that, 
it  is  the  sign  that  for  the  moment  the  interaction  of 
all  the  social  elements  has  reached  a  degree  of  harmony 
sufficient  to  give  all  men  the  happiness  of  being  busy 
and  the  satisfaction  of  being  supplied.  So,  when  it 
happens  that  business  is  "down,"  like  the  thermf)meier. 
it  does  no  good  to  put  it  "up"  by  artificial  meruis.  The 
thing  to  do  is  to  change  the  general  condition,  whatever 
it  may  be,  and  business  will  reflect  the  result  as  surely 
as  the  mercury  rises  with  the  First  mild  days  of  spring. 

Many  other  adjustments  must  occur  before  we  get 
the  "business  adjustment"  which  people  l)clic\e  is  the 
one  thing  necessary. 

.And  these  adjustments  are  now  in  process.  That  is 
a  point  we  ought  to  bear  in  mind  :  these  (uiji(st)iie}its 
arc  now  goiiu/  on. 

Peoi^le  often  sa}-  "things  air  ;it  a  standstill."  No. 
they  are  not.  If  we  could  see  the  whole  economic 
process,  not  merely  the  one  point  where  it  inakes  cmtact 
with  u^  as  indi\iduals  in  our  jobs,  we  slKuild  see  that 
nothing  is  at  a  slandstili,  but  that  everything  i>  moving 


FORD    IDEALS 

and  changing — even  now,  when  everything  seems  to 
be  dull. 

What  we  call  "hard  times"  are  economically  the  be- 
ginning of  "good  times."  That  is,  a  period  of  depres- 
sion is  not  the  tail  end  of  the  old  era ;  it  is  the  introduc- 
tory period  of  a  new  era.  Now,  that  idea  is  worth  get- 
ting, for  it  shows  us  as  by  a  light  just  how  foolish  we 
mortals  are  in  the  matters  which  most  vitally  aflfect  us 
in  our  economic  interests. 

We  think  that  this  business  slump  is  the  end  of  the 
old  period ;  it  is  really  the  beginning  of  the  new.  If  we 
had  been  wise  we  would  have  recognized  that  the  fever- 
ish prosperity  of  last  spring  and  the  preceding  winter 
were  the  real  "bad  times"  of  which  we  should  have 
been  afraid.  Wise  men  told  the  people  that,  but  did 
anyone  heed  ?  Only  a  few.  That  feverish,  flashy  pros- 
perity during  which  money  was  spent  in  fast  and 
furious  manner,  and  everybody  was  independent  and 
felt  that  he  could  walk  out  of  his  job  any  time  he 
wanted  ;  that  complete  let-down  of  all  common  sense  in 
expenditures  and  manufacture  and  labor — that  com- 
prised our  hard  times !     But  we  did  not  know  it. 

That  period  had  to  end.  That  was  the  ruinous  pe- 
riod. All  the  damage  was  done  then.  And  when  it  did 
end,  then  readjustment  immediately  began.  The  slow- 
down and  stoppage  was  the  first  sign  of  healthy  recov- 
ery from  the  fever  of  irresponsilile  folly.  The  slow- 
down was  not  the  disease;  it  was  the  convalescence. 
We  were  sick,  sick  during  what  we  thought  was  the 
heyday  of  our  economic  golden  age;  so  sick,  that  in  our 
delirium  we  mistook  dangerous  economic  conditions  for 
"prosperity." 

Wliatever  disaster  may  be  falling  now  is  not  a  con- 
sequence of  present  conditions,  but  of  former  condi- 
tions. From  this  time  forward,  indeed  from  the  time 
the  fever  left  us,  the  general  economic  condition  has 
been  on  the  mend. 

When  peoitle  are  able  to  see  that  the  time  to  be 
fearful  is  in  times  of  irres]:)onsible  prosperity,  in  the 
drunken  revel  of  profiteering — then,  we  may  hope  for 
the  prevention  of  j^eriods  of  what  we  call  "hard  times." 
The  only  way  you  can  eliminate  the  periods  of  conval- 
escence is  by  eliminating  the  periods  of  illness.     And 

374 


INFLATED   PROSPERITY  THE  REAL  "BAD  TIMES" 

the  only  way  to  eliminate  economic  illness  is  not  to  con- 
fuse it  with  economic  convalescence,  as  the  people  have 
done  for  a  century. 

The  whole  matter  is  so  intertwined  that  you  cannot 
speak  of  it  under  such  terms  as  "money,"  business," 
"credit,"  or  the  like.  These  only  represent  a  special 
angle  of  the  general  whole.  The  crucial  readjustments 
that  take  place  at  times  like  this  are  not  fiscal  at  all, 
but  human.  The  whole  secret  of  economic  recovery 
is  stated  in  human,  and  not  banking  terms. 

When  a  crowded  excursion  ship  is  lurching  too 
heavily  on  one  side,  threatening  to  capsize,  what  is  the 
remedy?  Readjustment  of  the  burden.  If  all  the  peo- 
ple have  rushed  to  the  port  side,  have  half  of  them 
return  to  the  starboard  side.  This  equalizes  the  burden. 
It  is  evenly  distributed,  and  thus  more  easily  carried. 

Something  like  that  has  happened  to  the  economic 
ship.  Too  many  peo})le  crowded  over  to  one  side.  The 
City  constitutes  but  a  small  part  of  the  world.  The 
Manufactory  constitutes  only  one  part  of  the  work  of 
the  world.  Yet  everybody  wanted  to  crowd  into  the 
City,  and  to  enter  the  Factory.  And  the  result  was  thai 
an  artificial  congestion  arose,  and  we  called  the  fever 
of  that  congestion  by  the  delusive  name  of  "prosper- 
ity." All  sorts  of  unnatural  things  came  out  of  it. 
Unnatural  ideals  of  life.  Unnatural  exaggeration  of 
the  value  of  money.  Unnatural  disproportion  iK'tween 
qualities  of  materials  and  the  ])rice  asked  for  them. 
Unnatural  notions  of  what  constituted  "a  good  standard 
of  living."  Unnatural  waste  of  materials  in  cheap  and 
gaudy  "luxuries,"  which  were  only  toys.  The  whole 
condition  was  unhealtliy  in  the  extreme,  but  because 
there  was  a  hectic  flush  u])on  its  features,  men  thcMight 
it  was  the  color  of  "economic  health."  It  was  the  con- 
suming fevci'  of  economic  dissijiation. 

^'ou  see,  tlierefore,  wliat  line  sonic  of  the  readjust- 
ments had  to  t;ike.  I'eojilc  liad  to  do  a  lot  of  readjust- 
ing themscl\(.'s.  W'liat  i>  the  meaning  of  tlie  "Imh"  Kent" 
signs  ill  our  eitii'S  and  tlie  deflation  ot  the  i"ent 
profiteers'  ])allooiis?  SiiiipK'  this:  people  ai'e  readju^-l- 
iiig  tlie  ine((ualit\-  ol'  the  pfjpnlatinn  between  eouiilry 
and  citw  Tliousaiids  of  jieople  are  .U'ling  hack  to  the 
real  coniitrw  wliicli  lies  outside  ilu'  citie>. 


FORD    IDEALS 


The  people  who  are  now  going  back  to  the  country 
are  an  advance  guard.  The  time  is  coming  when,  if 
industry  needs  them,  it  will  go  to  the  country  and  get 
them,  erecting  pleasant  little  workshops  beside  the  local 
streams,  and  begin  industry  anew  under  natural  condi- 
tions. It  is  natural  for  j^eople  to  like  industry,  to  want 
to  work  in  industrial  institutions ;  but  it  is  unnatural 
that  a  million  jieople  should  have  to  be  packed  in  the 
narrow  area  of  the  City  in  order  to  gratify  that  desire. 

We  must  not  think,  therefore,  that  those  who  are 
leaving  the  cities  are  the  defeated  ones.  Not  at  all. 
Heaven  forbid  that  our  standard  of  success  should  ever 
be  in  the  present  tyjie  of  city  life!  Those  who  are 
going  back  are  the  vanguard  of  a  new  movement  which 
will  continue  until  a  proper  adjustment  has  been 
reached. 

So,  all  these  wholesome  things  are  occurring  now. 
The  whole  situation  is  mending  fast.  No  one  will  doubt 
that  the  people  are  in  a  much  more  wholesome  frame  of 
mind  than  they  were  a  year  ago.  And  there  can  be  no 
prosperity  without  this  sound  state  of  mind  on  the  part 
of  the  people.  The  first  essential  of  prosperity  has 
therefore  come  back  already:  the  fever  has  left  the 
public  mind. 


376 


Choosing  and  Being  Chosen 


MCJS'I"  of  the  wisdom  of  the  world  was  in  the  copy 
books.  1  he  lines  we  used  to  write  over  and  over 
again,  the  homely  old  maxims  on  which  we  practiced 
to  obtain  legibility  of  our  p's  and  q's,  were  the  essence 
of  human  wisdom,  'i'hey  were  the  first-aid  packages 
which  the  jihilosophers  made  to  assist  men  who  might 
need  hel])  out  in  the  midst  of  the  field  of  life.  Most 
of  the  books  that  have  been  written  since  the  copy  books 
are  only  commentaries  thereon  ;  they  say^with  more  and 
harder  words  what  we  used  to  read  in  our  first  lessons. 

ll  isn't  learning,  it  is  wisdom  or  plain  sense  that 
heli:)s  one  through.  Any  man  can  learn  all  that  he  needs 
to  know.  No  one  ever  learns  more  than  he  wants  to 
know.  We  never  learn  anything  unless  we  want  to. 
Sometimes  you  will  find  a  man  with  what  a])pears  to  be 
a  lot  of  useless  learning,  and  you  discover  tliat  he  accu- 
mulated it  not  because  of  his  interest  in  its  special 
departments,  but  because  he  thought  that  acquaintance 
with  a  multitude  of  subjects  added  to  his  prestige.  He 
accumulated  knowledge  as  he  accumulated  neckties  or 
golf  sticks. 

The  whole  secret  of  a  successful  life  is  to  find  out 
what  it  is  your  destiny  to  do,  and  then  do  it. 

Now,  that  idea  has  several  sides.  When  we  sjx'ak 
of  what  we  "do''  we  usually  mean  what  it  is  we  "do" 
for  a  living.  "What  are  you  going  to  do  when  you  are 
a  man?"  we  sometimes  ask  the  cliildren  ;  it  means  at 
what  occupation  are  they  to  be  engaged. 

Well,  we  all  have  to  work.  lUit  mo-t  of  us  have 
something  else  to  "do"  as  well.  If  all  that  a  man  has 
to  "do"  in  the  w(jrld  is  the  mechanical  operations  he 
performs  dtu"ing  working  hours,  then  it  woidd  follow 
that  if  machinery  should  be  invented  1»i  ]H'rforni  that 
o])etati(tn  for  him.  he  would  have  nothing  tn  "do." 
One  of  the  reallv  usetul  figuro  <it  lii^  time  used  to  say 
that  his  work  was  of  cpiite  ;i  dilVc'rent  rharactcr  than 
appeared  to  observer-;  the  o])>er\-ers  tlnuigln   he  wa--  a 


FORD    IDEALS 

cobbler ;  but  he  said  he  mended  shoes  only  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  his  proper  work. 

We  toil  because  we  have  to  square  our  debt  with 
the  earth — we  have  to  pay  for  the  wealth  she  lends  us 
in  every  material  thing  we  use.  But  what  do  we  do 
with  the  life  that  we  thus  buy?  That  is  the  true  form 
of  the  question  as  to  what  we  "do." 

But  there  is  something  besides  our  toil — there  is 
also  our  work.  Our  toil  is  what  we  have  to  do  to  bear 
our  part  of  the  work  of  production  in  which  mankind 
is  engaged,  and  the  fruits  of  which  are  essential  to  our 
well-being.  That  is  our  toil.  But  our  Work  is  that 
which  we  would  do  all  the  time  if  we  could.  Happy  is 
the  man  whose  toil  and  work  are  one.  There  are  many, 
however,  not  so  happily  situated. 

Most  of  us  are  doing  two  things :  that  by  which 
the  body  is  kept  alive,  and  that  by  which  the  higher  part 
of  our  nature  lives.  W^e  go  to  the  job  to  pay  expenses, 
and  then  we  indulge  ourselves  in  what  we  like  to  do, 
and  maybe  were  meant  to  do. 

That  is  the  secret  of  all  the  "amateurs"  in  the 
United  States.  Amateurs  are  not  always  what  we  think 
they  are.  They  are  often  more  intelligent  and  skillful 
than  the  professionals.  We  shall  have  to  change  our 
ideas  of  the  meaning  of  amateur ;  formerly  it  meant 
those  who  knew  very  little  and  were  unskillful ;  those 
who  had  a  liking  for  an  art  or  a  science,  but  merely 
dabbled.  That  idea  will  have  to  go  in  favor  of  the 
truer  one,  that  the  "amateur"  differs  from  the  profes- 
sional only  in  this,  that  the  professional  gets  his  living 
by  it  and  the  amateur  does  not.  In  some  respects  the 
amateur  is  better  off,  for  he  has  two  fields — that  by 
which  he  pays  expenses,  and  that  in  which  he  finds 
expression. 

It  is  amazing  to  find  how  many  people  in  the  United 
States  have  evolved  financial  systems.  Here,  there, 
everywhere  are  men  who  have  occupied  their  spare 
hours  with  the  great  subject  of  money.  Farmers,  store- 
keepers, mechanics,  country  editors,  could  collectively 
roll  up  a  mass  of  research  and  speculative  literature  on 
this  subject  that  would  literally  swamp  the  received 
authorities  in  the  region  of  finance. 

All  this  has  a  meaning.     It  means  that  the  ]:)eople 

378 


CHOOSING   AND    BEING   CHOSEN 

are  being  prepared  for  something  in  the  money  realm. 
When  you  find  receptive  minds  in  all  classes  of  society 
being  moved  by  the  same  master  note,  you  may  be 
sure  something  is  coming.  All  this  mass  of  thought 
by  plain  people  is  the  prophetic  soil  whence  shall  come 
the  one  whose  mind  can  gather  up  all  the  fruitage  of 
the  others  and  bring  the  epochal  change  to  pass. 

In  truth  there  are  no  discoveries.  Nothing  is  ever 
entrusted  to  one  man  alone.  We  know  now  that  no  one 
man  invented  printing ;  the  idea  was  seeking  incarna- 
tion and  found  its  way  into  life  through  several  men 
at  about  the  same  time.  Columbus  was  not  the  only 
discoverer  of  America :  other  men's  thoughts  had  been 
set  this  way.  Destiny  takes  precaution  that  no  purpose 
shall  fail  through  the  unfaithfulness  of  one  man  ;  and 
so  the  new  truth  is  entrusted  to  several.  It  is  this  which 
leads  to  so  many  bickerings  in  the  matter  of  discoveries ; 
it  is  hard  to  prove  who  was  "first" ;  the  idea  was  abroad 
"in  the  air,"  and  it  came  through  to  the  minds  that  were 
receptive,  that  were  keyed  to  its  quality. 

Now,  when  you  look  at  this  from  another  side  it  is 
a  mighty  encouraging  thing.  Some  day  there  may  come 
to  you  the  duty  to  do  a  disagreeable  task,  to  take  up  a 
cause  which  will  yield  you  no  reward,  which  will  at  first 
envelop  you  in  misunderstanding  and  abuse,  which  will 
make  yoii  look  like  a  fool  before  men.  "^'ou  will  shrink 
from  it  naturally,  yet  if  you  are  the  ])erst)n  selected 
for  the  task,  some  way  it  will  make  itself  known  to  you 
as  a  serious  pro])osition  regardless  of  your  likes  and 
dislikes. 

The  appointed  task  ma\'  be  less  to  your  likes  than 
you  expected.  A  man's  real  work  is  not  always  what 
he  -would  Iiaz'c  clioscn  to  do.  A  man's  real  work  is  what 
he  is  chosen  to  do.  There  is  all  the  dilTerencc  between 
clioosiiuj  and  hciuy  clioscn.  Soiiietinics  our  choices  are 
our  destruction. 

But  when  you  are  sure  of  what  you  ha\c  to  do  — 
and  unselfish  sincerity.  sim])lc  \vir.iii,L;nc->  to  dn  what 
is  right  are  the  onlv  coni])a-st'S  hv  which  \ou  can  be 
sure — then  vou  nia\-  also  be  siu'e  of  tlii>:  y<u(  arc  not 
the  only  one. 

(Others  have  been  notilicil  and  called  out.  too.  Ihit 
maybe  not  to  initiate  the  work.      Maylic   ju-^t   to   form 

379 


FORD   IDEALS 

the  silent  background,  the  receptive  soil  for  the  effects 
which  your  work  will  bring  about.  No  man  ever  stands 
alone  in  any  cause,  if  it  is  a  righteous  cause.  When  he 
calls,  his  voice  will  be  heard  and  answered.  He  will  be 
made  aware  by  a  thousand  means  that  what  he  trem- 
bled before  as  a  stern,  forbidding  task,  is  really  the 
silent  interest  of  many  people. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  nonsense  spoken  about  "the 
lonely  heights."  They  are  not  lonely,  though  they  may 
1  e  silent.  The  loneliness  comes  when  a  man  settles 
within  himself  whether  he  is  to  be  a  mere  form,  follow- 
ing a  conventional  routine,  or  whether  he  is  to  listen 
and  obey  the  voice  of  changeful  life.  It  is  lonely  for 
him  while  he  is  deciding.  If  he  decides  to  do  what  duty 
bids  him,  then  he  is  no  longer  lonely ;  he  comes  at  once 
into  the  fellowship  of  all  liberated  souls.  The  only 
liberated  souls  are  those  dedicated  to  perpetuate  obedi- 
ence. 

Most  of  us  will  never  get  fame.  In  a  way  this  is 
to  be  regretted,  for  if  we  could  get  it  we  should  know 
how  well-off  we  are  without  it.  Most  of  us  will  never 
shine  as  the  captain-leader  of  great  movements ;  but  the 
real  success  and  achievement  of  life  is  to  be  one  of  the 
foot  soldiers  of  those  great  silent  movements  which, 
like  the  motion  of  the  sea,  keep  humanity  from  stagna- 
tion 


380 


Can  You  Stand  Friction? 


PI'JY  the  poor  fellow  who  is  so  soft  and  flabhy  that 
he  must  always  have  "an  atniosphere  of  good  feel- 
ing" around  him  before  he  can  do  his  work.  There  are 
such  men.  They  produce  with  a  sort  of  hothouse  fer- 
vor while  they  are  being  coddled,  but  the  moment  the 
atmosphere  chills  and  becomes  critical  they  become  \k'v- 
fectly  helpless.  And  in  the  end,  unless  they  obtain 
enough  mental  and  moral  hardiness  to  lift  them  out  of 
their  soft  reliance  on  "feeling,"  they  are  failures.  Not 
only  are  they  business  failures ;  they  are  character  fail- 
ures also;  it  is  as  if  their  bones  never  attained  a  suffi- 
cient degree  of  hardness  to  enable  them  to  stand  on 
their  own  feet. 

There  is  altogether  too  much  reliance  on  good  feel- 
ing in  our  business  organizations.  Peo])le  have  too 
great  a  liking  for  working  with  the  ])eople  they  like.  In 
the  end  it  spoils  a  good  many  valuable  qualities. 

Don't  misunderstand  ;  when  the  term  "'good  feeling" 
is  used,  it  means  that  habit  of  making  om^  personal  likes 
and  dislikes  on  purely  afiinilive  and  emotional  grovuids, 
the  sole  standard  of  judgment. 

Suppose  you  don't  like  that  man.  Is  ihat  anything 
against  him?  It  may  be  something  against  you.  W'liat 
has  your  like  or  dislike  to  do  with  the  facts,  anyway? 
If  you  are  a  man  of  common  sense  )ou  must  know  that 
there  is  many  a  man  whom  you  dislike,  whom  \du  must 
admit  is  better  than  yourself. 

When  you  were  a  lazy  young  fellow  you  probaI)ly 
disliked  the  boss  v.-ho  tried  to  kecj)  yon  l)usy.  When 
you  were  a  careles-,  wasteful  young  sport,  you  jirobably 
disliked  the  wise  old  bead  who  took  you  aside  and  told 
you  how  many  kinds  of  a  tool  vi>u  were.  When  vou 
got  into  business  and  settled  into  a  rut,  you  proI)abl\' 
disliked  the  progressive  fellow  wlio  canu'  aloUL;'  witli 
some  live-wire  coniprinioii  and  make  \  ou  j^cl  out  ami 
hustle  again. 

lUu  what  (\{^  these  dislike>  show?     SiniiiK'  what   \'();( 


FORD    IDEALS 

were.  That  ought  to  be  enough  to  make  you  careful 
to  remember  that  your  disHke  always  tells  more  about 
you  than  it  does  about  the  other  fellow.  Your  disHke 
may  be  wrong  about  the  other  fellow ;  it  is  perfectly 
unmistakable  in  what  it  says  concerning  you. 

Now,  if  you  are  one  of  those  easy-going  people  who 
prefer  to  have  a  certain  type  of  persons  around  you — 
just  that  type  and  no  other — it  is  a  sign  of  which  you 
ought  to  take  notice.  There  is  a  dangerous  psychology 
in  having  only  agreeable  people  around  you ;  it  is  too 
much  like  a  man  reclining  on  cushions  all  the  time. 
Some  men  like  to  have  around  them  women  who  "un- 
derstand" them,  and  men  who  agree  with  them,  and 
friends  who  will  always  defer  to  them,  and  a  public 
that  will  always  say  "Bravo"'  no  matter  what  is  done. 

The  worst  of  it  is,  a  man  can  have  just  these  things 
if  he  wants  them.  But  they  leave  him  without  gristle 
and  marrowbone  in  the  end. 

You  can  have  far  too  much  harmony,  especially  in 
business.  You  can  go  too  far  in  picking  men  because 
they  harmonize  with  you  in  your  nature.  You  can 
have  so  much  harmony  that  there  will  not  be  any  of 
the  thrust  and  counter-thrust  which  means  life,  any 
of  the  competition  or  friction  which  means  elTort  and 
progress. 

It  is  one  thing  for  an  organization  to  be  working 
harmoniously  toward  one  object,  but  it  is  another  thing 
for  an  organization  to  work  harmoniously  with  each 
individual  unit  of  itself. 

Some  organizations  use  up  so  much  energy  and  time 
maintaining  a  feeling  of  harmony  in  themselves  that 
they  have  no  force  left  to  work  toward  the  object  for 
which  the  organization  was  created. 

The  organization  is  secondary  to  the  object.  The 
only  harmonious  organization  that  is  worth  anything 
is  an  organization  which  is  all  bent  on  the  one  main 
purpose — not  to  get  along  ivitJi  itself,  but  to  get  along 
toix'ard  the  objective.  A  common  purpose,  honestly 
believed  in,  sincerely  desired — that  is  the  great  har- 
monizing principle. 

Now,  if  John  Smith  does  not  like  James  Jones, 
what  does  that  matter?  The  main  question  is.  does 
James  Jones  know  his  business?     Can  he  advance  this 

382 


CAN     YOU     STAND    FRICTION? 

program  toward  its  objective?  Away  with  personal- 
ities !  This  trivial,  unexplainable  temper  which  turns 
to  likes  on  one  hand  and  to  dislikes  on  the  other;  this 
apparently  unreasonable  and  irresponsible  influence  of 
attraction  and  repulsion — these  are  stray  mental  phe- 
nomena which  may  have  reasons  and  meanings  in 
some  si)heres  of  our  being,  but  the  man  who  allows 
such  feelings  to  be  the  sole  judge  of  men  and  the  sole 
determinant  of  his  comfort  in  working  with  men,  is 
certainly  laying  out  trouble  for  himself. 

The  whole  matter  of  harmony  has  been  over-em- 
phasized. Not  only  over-emphasized  but  wrongly 
based.  Everybody  has  the  idea  that  harmony  means 
the  various  units  of  the  organization  getting  along  well 
with  each  other,  after  the  manner  of  guests  at  a  party. 
But  that  is  not  the  basis  of  the  harmony  that  achieves : 
the  only  basis  for  effective  organizational  harmony  is 
a  common  belief  in  a  conmion  cause. 

A  certain  amount  of  friction  is  a  good  thing  every- 
wliere — not  antagonism,  for  that  is  waste;  not  jealousy, 
for  that  is  infantile  stuj)idity;  not  a  selfish  and  un- 
princi])led  cutting  unfler  of  anotbiCr  fellow — but  frank, 
open  understanding  that  on  this  jn])  at  least  we  stand 
for  what  v/e  are  and  nothing  moro. 

EverA'bodv  knows  of  Itusinesses  where  fellows  are 
being  "held  u])"  through  friendship.  The  stall"  thinks 
that  So-and-So  is  a  good  fellow,  or  the  Ijoss  likes  him. 
or  he  maintains  a  sort  of  ])osition  bccauH'  be  "is  ea>y 
to  get  along  witji.''  l>ut  what  about  the  l)usine.>s? 
{'or  everybody  tluis  l)eing  held  u]).  someone  is  doing 
the  holding  u]),  and  the  business  is  burdened  to  hold 
u])  both  of  them. 

An  organization  can  l)e  so  perfectly  "harmonious" 
that  it  has  lost  the  pov/er  and  the  courage  to  ])rune 
itself  of  its  own  dead  linil)s. 

An  organizntion  cm  lie  so  ])erfectly  "harnior.ious" 
lliat  its  onlv  salvation  de])ends  on  someone  coming  in 
and  making-  it  work  with  peop'e  it  "doesn't  like."'  and 
making  it  do  work  that  it  "doesn't  like" — in  short, 
making  it  amount  to  something  b\-  doing  wh.at  it  doesn't 
like. 

Hi  .n't  (]o  all  llie  tilings  \on  like  to  <lo  ;  and  do  most 
of  the  things   vou  don't   like  to  do;  and  then  you  will 


FORD   IDEALS 

become  a  character  strong  enough  to  step  out  and  ac- 
compHsh  things  with  men  whom  you  don't  like  and 
who  possibly  don't  like  you. 

Tlie  young  man,  especially  the  young  business  man, 
had  better  put  this  "like'  stuff  away  from  him  entirely ; 
it  is  as  enervating  as  lolling  among  cushions  ail  day. 
The  wise  manager  will  get  most  of  his  work  done 
through  men  whom  he  doesn't  like  and  who  may  not 
like  him ;  all  that  is  necessary  is  for  him  to  know  and 
respect  their  ability  and  dependability. 

Men  who  know  will  agree  with  this :  there  is  a 
stronger  bond  between  men  who  respect  each  other 
for  their  strong  qualities,  than  there  is  among  men 
who  "like'"  each  other  for  their  merely  amiable  qual- 
ities. 

How  would  you  measure  a  man's  value?  You  re- 
ply, "By  what  he  is  worth."  Not  by  what  you  think 
of  him,  that  is,  not  by  how  you  react  to  his  personality 
in  liking  or  dislike?  "No."  Very  well.  If  that  is 
the  rule  you  follow,  you  will  not  be  likely  to  do  an 
injustice  to  your  fellow-man  by  misjudging  him,  nor 
to  do  an  injustice  to  yourself  by  fortifying  the  always 
human  tendency  to  unreasonable  prejudices. 

If  you  feel  yourself  getting  soft  and  ineffectual, 
get  out  v/here  there  will  be  no  sympathy,  no  under- 
standing, no  admiration,  but  just  plain  challenge  to 
do  what  is  in  you.     That  will  brace  you  up. 


384 


If  You're  Settled 
You're  Sagging 

THE  pull  of  gravitation  upon  us  is  mostly  felt  in 
the  desire  to  find  some  routine  that  will  almo  t 
run  itself,  to  organize  a  business  that  will  operate  itself 
automatically  and  for  an  indefinite  period,  to  strike  a 
single  comfortable  rut  and  to  keep  it.  This  is  the 
downpull  which  men  ought  to  resist,  especially  in  these 
changeful  times  when  the  future  is  offering  itself  to 
foresight,  and  will  be  the  servant  of  those  who  are 
able  to  detach  themselves  from  the  familiar  and  ad- 
venture with  the  new. 

In  the  horse  age  we  used  to  see  this  tendency  rej)- 
resented  in  animals  who  were  accustomed  to  a  certain 
daily  round.  The  doctor  went  to  certain  houses,  and 
his  horse  became  accustomed  to  stop  there,  and  would 
always  turn  in  whether  reined  in  or  not.  The  milk- 
man went  his  round,  and  his  horse  behaxed  as  if  dis- 
pleased if  any  change  was  made  in  the  daily  ])rograni. 

Men  fall  into  the  same  half-alive  habit.  Seldom 
does  the  cobbler  take  up  with  the  new-fangled  way  of 
soleing  shoes,  and  seldom  does  the  artisan  willingly 
take  up  with  new  methods  in  his  trade,  llabit  con- 
duces to  a  certain  inertia,  and  an}'  disturbance  of  it 
afi"ects  the  mind  like  a  trouble.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
when  a  study  was  made  of  shop  methods,  so  that  the 
workman  might  be  taught  to  ])ro(hice  with  les^  useless 
motion  and  fatigue,  it  was  most  op])ose(l  b\-  the  work- 
men themselves.  Though  tlu'N-  suspected  that  it  was 
simply  a  game  to  get  more  out  of  them,  what  most 
irked  them  was  that  it  interfered  with  the  well-worn 
grooxes  in  which  thev  moved. 

There  are  business  men  who  are  going  down  with 
their  liusinesses  because  the\'  like  tlie  old  way  so  well 
the\'  cannot  bring  tbeni>eK-e>  to  giw  it  np.  (  )ne  sees 
them  all  about-    men   wlio  <\i*  ii"t   know  iliat    \-esierda\' 


FORD   IDEALS 

is  past,  and  who  woke  up  this  morning  with  their  last 
year's  ideas. 

It  could  almost  be  written  down  as  a  prescription 
that  when  a  man  begins  to  think  that  he  has  at  last 
found  his  method,  he  had  better  begin  a  most  searching 
examination  of  himself  to  see  whether  some  part  of 
his  brain  has  not  gone  to  sleep.  There  is  a  subtle 
danger  in  a  man  thinking  that  he  is  "fixed"  for  life. 
It  indicates  that  the  next  jolt  of  the  wheel  of  progress 
is  going  to  fling  him  off. 

The  only  business  that  has  a  promise  of  security 
is  the  business  whose  manager  has  hardihood  enough 
to  change  it,  even  though  he  may  love  it  ever  so  much, 
when  his  common  sense  tells  him  that  a  change  is 
coming.  It  is  a  hard  thing  to  do,  but  the  hard  things 
are  usually  the  right  things  to  do,  and  a  man  is  better 
for  following  his  vision  instead  of  his  "likes." 

And  what  makes  it  hard?  It  will  not  be  hard  for 
the  man  who  comes  to  do  it  for  the  first  time — why 
is  it  hard  for  the  other?  Because  he  has  softened 
down  into  the  old  methods ;  he  has  allowed  them  to 
mold  him,  instead  of  himself  molding  them;  he  has 
become  a  creature  of  his  method,  instead  of  its  con- 
troller. 

The  past  has  a  strong  hold  on  us  through  its  de- 
tail. We  cannot  break  with  the  past,  but  we  can  scrape 
off  the  clinging  seaweed  oi  its  details.  We  can  break 
down  the  whimpering  laziness  of  mind  which  resents 
the  intrusion  of  new  methods.  We  can  acknowledge 
each  day  as  a  new  day  and  not  a  mere  repetition  of 
yesterday. 

Life  is  not  a  "battle"  except  with  our  own  tend- 
ency to  sag  under  the  downpull  of  the  habit  of  "get- 
ting settled."  If  to  petrify  is  success,  all  one  has  to 
do  is  to  humor  the  lazy  side  of  the  mind;  but  if  to 
grow  is  success,  then  one  must  wake  up  anew  every 
morning  and  keep  awake  all  day.  Great  businesses 
become  but  the  ghost  of  a  name  because  some  one 
thought  they  could  be  managed  just  as  they  were  al- 
ways managed,  and  though  the  management  may  have 
been  most  excellent  in  its  day,  its  excellence  consisted 
in  its  alertness  to  its  day,  and  not  in  slavish  follow- 
ing of  its  yesterdays.     It  is  not  likely  there  will  ever 

386 


IF   YOU  RE  SETTLED   YOU  RE   SAGC.ING 

"ije  many  really  new  things  to  do,  but  it  is  certain  that 
most  of  the  old  works  will  be  performed  in  a  new  way. 
Fundamentally,  agriculture  will  always  mean  produc- 
ing foodstuffs  and  clothstuffs  from  the  field ;  trans- 
portation will  always  mean  conveying  materials  by 
wheel  across  the  surface  of  the  earth  or  by  bottoms 
across  the  surface  of  the  waters ;  manufacture  will 
always  mean  armies  of  men  working  raw  materials 
into  articles  of  use. 

Everything  we  now  point  to  boastfully  as  evidences 
of  our  progress  consists  simply  in  doing  some  old 
work  in  a  new  way.  Most  of  that  progress  consists 
in  getting  light  from  filaments  instead  of  tallow,  get- 
ting wheel-movements  from  fire  instead  of  ox-muscle. 
Most  of  the  history  of  material  progress  can  be  writ- 
ten as  a  story  of  the  successive  ways  by  which  wheels 
have  been  made  go  round.  There  is  nothing  new  ex- 
cept in  the  way  it  is  done. 

Society  is  always  in  danger  from  two  classes,  those 
who  fear  change,  and  those  who  crave  it.  The  first 
class  tends  toward  decay,  the  second  toward  destruc- 
tion. Change  is  not  to  be  sought  for  itself  alone,  but 
in  following  to  best  advantage  the  obvious  beckoning 
of  the  times. 

There  is  always  something  outside  ourselves  that 
gives  the  signal;  a  motion  of  advance  that  comes  over 
the  earth  like  the  coming  of  spring,  and  those  that 
are  alive  resjxind  to  it ;  those  who  prefer  to  continue 
their  hibernation  in  the  old  methods,  fall  out  of  step 
with  the  advance.  They  remain  comfortable  enough, 
no  doubt,  but  they  no  longer  count. 

It  pays  a  man  always  to  have  ideas  in  advance  of 
what  he  is  doing;  that  is  the  only  valuable  ca])ital. 

C"hangcs  arc  coming  in  every  field,  and  the  cause 
of  the  jagged  interval  between  two  periods  is  men's 
hesitancv  to  give  up  the  old  and  phmge  into  the  new. 
The  old  leaves  fall  to  make  room  for  the  new.  The 
old  methods  are  sudden!}-  found  to  be  ina(le(iuate  be- 
cause new  combinations  are  arri\ing.  The  sleejiv  side 
of  oiu"  nn'nds  complains  that  we  are  being  shaken  out 
of  our  old  life;  tlie  \-ivi(l]y  alive  side  oi  our  niiniN 
would  show  us.  if  we  would  iH'rmit  it.  that  we  are  only 
being  shaken  into  om"  new  lite. 

387 


FORD    IDF.ALS 

It  is  not  given  to  every  generation  to  pass  through 
a  period  of  change.  Life  ran  placidly  for  our  fore- 
fathers for  long  stretches  at  a  time,  and  in  the  older 
countries  a  certain  method  of  life  became  so  fixed  that 
it  left  century-long  traces  on  city  and  countryside.  But 
in  these  latter  days  the  intervals  of  change  become 
shorter  and  shorter.  The  pace  is  (juickening.  Period 
follows  period  out  of  all  reckoning  w^ith  the  old  cal- 
endars. VVe  have  seen  an  almost  complete  revolution 
in  the  past  15  years,  and  now  we  are  on  the  eve  of 
another ;  and  as  soon  as  that  will  have  come,  another 
will  be  visible  on  the  horizon.  The  world  is  moving 
with  breathlessly  eager  haste  to  some  new  jx)sit.ion,  and 
we  cannot  stop  it.  We  can  only  stop  ourselves  from 
following  along. 

IJfe  is  not  a  location,  but  a  journey.  Even  the 
man  who  most  feels  himself  "settled"  is  mjt  settled, 
he  is  probably  sagging  back.  Everything  is  in  flux, 
and  was  meant  to  be.  Life  flows,  and  is  not  in  the 
same  stretch  of  country  for  very  long.  Even  the  solar 
universe,  we  are  told,  is  flying  along  like  a  flock  of 
shining  birds  always  occupying  a  new  position  in  space. 
We  may  live  at  the  same  number  of  the  street,  but  it 
is  never  the  same  man  who  lives  there. 

These  facts  may  be  resented  or  welcomed :  the  man 
who  acknowledges  them  in  a  practical  way  in  the  form 
his  service  takes  will  always  find  himself  in  service ; 
the  others  will  be  retired.  Finding  it  hard  to  give  up 
an  incrusted  method  is  a  sign  of  a  hardening  of  the 
mind  which,  like  the  hardening  of  the  arteries,  is  not 
to  be  neglected. 


.3  fig 


When  Not  to  Borrow  Money 


THE  time  for  a  business  man  to  borrow  money,  if 
ever,  is  when  he  does  not  need  it.  This  is  a  rule 
whose  observance  would  prevent  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
and,  what  is  more,  would  turn  out  a  better  disciplined 
class  of  business  men. 

A  business  is  one  entity  which  must  stand  on  its 
own  feet.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  talk  about  the 
soullessness  of  business  and  about  the  ruthlcssncss 
with  which  big  concerns  take  their  own  wherever  they 
are  able,  but  just  the  same,  if  business  were  superin- 
tended by  sentiment  and  managed  by  dreamers,  there 
would  be  no  l)usiness. 

It  is  the  unconscious  compliment  which  ])eople  pay 
to  business,  that  they  always  are  ready  to  believe  that 
business  can  help  them,  but  who  ever  saw  the  public 
run  to  the  aid  of  a  sinking  business?  Why?  P>ccause 
there  is  an  unconscious  belief  that  the  business  that 
cannot  stand  on  its  own  feet  is  not  worth  bothering 
about.  And  it  is  true.  That  is  the  whole  austerity 
and  severity  of  business ;  there  is  no  monastic  rule 
more  austere;  there  is  no  military  discipline  more  se- 
vere; that  business  is  justifiable  only  as  it  server,  and 
that  it  is  permanent  only  as  long  as  it  can  stand  by 
right  and  not  by  favor. 

A  business  concern  is  a  living  body,  though  not 
nearly  so  perfect  as  the  human  bod}'.  I  f  the  business 
entity  were  as  united  and  as  responsive  as  the  human 
body,  the  pnigress  that  we  are  making  now  would  seem 
nothing  in  comparison  with  the  progress  we  should 
then  make.  In  the  lunnan  body,  the  executive  func- 
tions located  in  the  ofhce  up  in  the  heatl  are  able  to 
convey  their  orders  directly  to  the  hands,  feet,  e\es  or 
mouth.  Normallv.  orders  are  ])recisely  obcyt'd.  lUit 
in  business  it  often  happens  that  the  executi\e  ideas 
could  not  be  recognized  h\-  the  time  they  hax'e  i)as^ed 
half-way  down  the  shop. 

Now,   becruise  business   i--   like   a    li\ing   luxh',   it    i< 


FORD   IDEALS 

capable  of  derangement,  sickness.  We  make  a  great 
mistake  when  we  think  that  business  becomes  sick 
only  from  without.  The  real  illness  to  fear  is  not  "de- 
pressed trade"  (that  is  an  outer  condition),  but  de- 
ranged functions,  an  internal  malady. 

Take  the  tree.  In  times  of  "good  business,"  so 
to  speak,  it  clothes  itself  luxuriantly  with  leaves ;  it 
pumps  streams  of  sap  from  the  nourishing  earth ;  all 
its  leaf-factories  are  kept  going,  in  the  daytime  gath- 
ering the  necessities  of  life  and  growth,  in  the  hours 
of  darkness  absorbing  them.  Then  come  "bad  times," 
so  to  speak :  autumn  storm,  winter  cold.  The  tree  easily 
and  naturally  adjusts  itself  to  the  change.  It  detaches 
its  leaves.  It  slows  down.  But  it  does  not  "fail."  It 
does  not  "borrow."  It  simply  trims  itself  to  the  sit- 
uation; it  does  not  even  freeze  up.  When  the  life 
processes  begin  to  flow  full  again,  the  tree  is  there 
ready  to  receive  them.  It  stands  on  its  own  feet.  If  it 
did  not,  it  would  die.  Indeed,  the  failure  to  do  that  is 
all  that  constitutes  dying. 

Now.  the  internal  ailments  of  business  are  the  ones 
that  require  most  attention.  "Business"  in  the  sense 
of  trading  with  the  people  is  largely  a  matter  of  filling 
a  want  of  the  people.  If  you  make  what  they  need, 
and  sell  it  at  such  a  price  as  will  make  possession  a 
help  and  not  a  hardship,  then  you  will  do  business  as 
long  as  there  is  business  to  do.  People  buy  what  helps 
them  just  as  naturally  as  they  drink  water. 

But  your  process  of  making  the  article  will  require 
your  constant  care.  ^Machinery  wears  out  and  needs 
to  be  restored.  Men  grow  uppish  or  lazy  or  careless, 
and  that  is  a  situation  that  must  be  remedied,  too. 
A  business  is  men  and  machines  united  in  the  produc- 
tion of  a  commodity,  and  both  the  men  and  the  ma- 
chines need  repairs  and  replacements.  It  is  a  fact 
which  every  business  man  should  realize  that  sometimes 
it  is  the  men  "higher  up"  who  need  this  treatment  most 
and  get  it  least. 

\\nien  a  business  Ijecomes  congested  with  bad 
methods;  when  a  business  becomes  ill  through  lack  of 
attention  to  one  or  more  of  its  functions;  when  exec- 
utives sit  comfortably  back  in  their  chairs  as  if  the 
plans  they  have  inaugurated  are  going  to  keep  them 

390 


WHEN    NOT  TO  BORROW    MONEY 

going  forever;  when  business  becomes  a  mere  planta- 
tion on  which  to  live,  and  not  a  big  work  which  one 
has  to  do — then  look  out  for  trouble. 

You  will  wake  up  some  fine  morning  and  find  your- 
self doing  more  business  than  you  have  ever  done 
before — and  getting  less  out  of  it.  Keep  on,  and  you 
will  begin  to  feel  the  pinch.  It  is  then  that  you  show 
what  is  in  you ;  it  is  the  last  examination  to  determine 
whether  you  are  entitled  to  the  degree  of  Business  Man. 

In  such  a  situation  you  can  borrow  money.  And 
you  can  do  it,  oh,  so  easily.  People  will  crowd  it  on 
you.  It  is  the  most  subtle  temptation  the  young  busi- 
ness man  has. 

Or  in  such  a  situation  you  can  take  off  your  coat, 
plunge  into  the  business  and  see  what  ails  its  internal 
workings.  Go  through  it  like  a  surgeon.  Remove  dan- 
gerous growths,  cut  of?  wastes,  purge  away  accumu- 
lated customs  which  hinder,  put  your  business  on  the 
operating  table  and  give  it  a  chance  for  its  life. 

If  you  borrow  money,  you  arc  sim])ly  borrowing 
stimulus  to  whatever  it  may  be  that  is  wrong.  You 
are  feeding  the  disease.  Is  a  man  more  wise  with 
borrowed  money  than  he  is  with  his  own?  Not  as  a 
usual  thing.  To  borrow  under  such  conditions  is  to 
mortgage  a  declining  property. 

Tlie  time  for  a  business  man  to  borroiv  money,  if 
ever,  is  when  he  does  not  need  it.  That  is,  when  he 
does  not  need  it  as  a  substitute  for  some  things  he 
ought  himself  to  do.  If  a  man's  business  is  in  excellent 
condition  and  in  need  of  expansion  which  the  business 
can  take  care  of,  that  is  another  matter.  But  if  a 
business  is  in  need  of  money  through  mismanagement 
or  a  disorder  of  the  internal  functions,  then  the  thing 
to  do  is  to  get  after  the  business  and  correct  the  trouble 
from  the  inside,  not  poultice  it  by  loans  fr(»m  the  out- 
side. 

Monev  is  onlv  another  tool  in  l)usiness.  anyway. 
It  is  just  a  part  of  the  machincrv.  ^'ou  might  as  well 
borrow  100,000  lathes  as  $100,000,  if  the  trouble  is 
inside  vour  business.  More  lathes  won't  cure  it  ;  nei- 
ther will  more  nionew  ()nl\-  heavier  (hxcs  ot  brains 
and  thought  and  wise  courage  can  do  it.  .\  Itusiness 
that  misuses  what  it  lias,  will  continue  to  nii:~use  what 

391 


FORD   IDEALS 

it  can  get;  the  point  is,  cure  the  misuse.  Then,  when 
that  is  done,  the  business  will  begin  to  make  its  own 
money,  as  a  repaired  human  body  begins  to  make  suffi- 
cient pure  blood. 

Borrowing  may  easily  become  an  excuse  for  boring 
into  the  cause  of  the  trouble. 

Borrowing  may  easily  become  a  sop  for  laziness 
and  pride.  Some  business  men  are  too  lazy  to  get 
into  overalls  and  go  down  to  see  what  is  the  matter. 
Or  they  are  too  proud  to  permit  the  thought  that  any- 
thing they  have  originated  could  go  wrong.  But  the 
laws  of  business  are  like  the  laws  of  gravity,  and 
the  man  who  opposes  them  feels  their  power. 

Borrowing  for  expansion  is  one  thing ;  Iwrrowing 
to  make  uj)  for  waste  and  mismanagement  is  quite 
another.  You  don't  want  money  for  the  latter,  for 
the  primary  reason  that  money  cannot  do  the  job. 
Waste  is  corrected  by  economy ;  mismanagement  is 
corrected  by  brains  and  application ;  and  neither  of 
these  correctives  can  be  confused  with  money.  Indeed, 
money  under  certain  circumstances  is  the  worst  enemy 
of  these  desirable  qualities.  And  many  a  business  man 
thanks  his  stars  for  the  pinch  which  showed  him  that 
his  best  capital  was  in  his  own  brains  and  not  in  bank 
loans. 

Borrowing  under  certain  circumstances  is  just  like 
the  drunkard  taking  another  drink  to  cure  the  effect 
of  the  last  one.  It  doesn't  do  what  it  is  expected  to  do. 
It  simply  increases  the  difficulty.  It  is  the  capstan 
of  the  voung  business  man's  education  when  he  sees 
that  the  tightening  up  of  the  loose  places  in  his  busi- 
ness is  much  more  profitable  than  any  amount  of  cap- 
ital at  7  per  cent. 


392 


Tariff — Taxes — Transportation 


GOVERNMENT  never  will  be  efficient  through 
and  through  because  that  is  not  what  Government 
exists  for.  But  in  its  tasks,  in  the  various  things  it 
undertakes  to  do  as  specific  services  for  the  people, 
it  should  be  a  model  of  efficiency.  After  all  is  said 
and  done,  Government  is  a  business  organization,  and 
something  more.  In  so  far  as  it  is  the  culmination 
of  national  purpose  and  aspiration,  it  is  as  foolish  to 
require  efficiency  of  a  Government  as  of  a  poem.  That 
is  not  the  sphere  of  governmental  efficiency.  But  if 
it  is  a  matter  of  digging  a  canal,  of  surveying  a  road,, 
of  delivering  a  letter — if  it  is  anything  like  the  things 
men  undertake  in  individual  or  lesser  corporate  ca- 
pacity, then  we  ha^e  a  right  to  expect  of  the  Govern- 
ment a  perfect  performance. 

These  services,  however,  are  but  a  part  of  the 
work  of  Government.  They  lie  on  the  factory  side 
of  Government,  so  to  speak,  and  should  be  organized 
under  efficient  superintendents  who  are  held  res])onsible 
for  results.  But  there  is  a  great  region  of  ])olicy  and 
])rogress  where  efficiency,  by  the  very  nature  of  the 
case,  cannot  be  maintained,  but  where  wisdom  is  in- 
dispensable. LTficiencv  consists  in  doing  in  the  best 
jiossible  way  anvthing  which  we  already  know  how  to 
do.  But  in  the  field  of  government  there  are  some 
things  which  we  ha\'e  yet  t<~i  learn  how  to  do.  We 
are  still   in  the  e.xperimental  stage. 

Tariff  is  one  of  these  exi)eriniental  matters.  Think 
of  the  man\'  minds  that  have  devoted  themselves  to 
this  problem,  of  the  party  battles  that  have  ])Cen  waged 
o\er  it,  of  the  artificial  pr()S])erities  and  the  needless 
distresses  that  have  cursed  whole  populations  as  the 
tariff  pendulum   swung  this  way  or  that. 

It  would  be  most  uncharitable  to  ~^ay  that  none  ot 
this  effort  to  reach  the  basic  princii)le  ol  taritt  has 
been  honest  :  doubtless  most  of  it  has  been:  rnid  doubt- 
less the  tariff  idea  rests  largel\-  on  ilie  confKU-iicc  that 

393 


FORD    IDEALS 


a  tariff  is  justified  because  it  is  serviceable  to  the  peo- 
ple. 

Perhaps  there  never  will  be  a  perfect  tariff  adjust- 
ment until  the  world  itself  is  perfected,  and  then  there 
will  be  no  need  of  tariffs.  It  is  because  of  the  inequal- 
ities of  the  nations  and  the  imperfection  of  the  earthly 
federation  that  these  walls  are  wanted.  Formerly  they 
walled  each  city  apart  from  the  rest ;  now  they  only 
wall  each  country. 

It  is  all  imperfect,  of  course,  and  tariffs  are  but 
a  part  of  the  general  imperfection.  We  can  perhaps 
tolerate  them  better  for  knowing  that  they  are  an  effect 
more  than  a  cause.  Certainly  the  tendency  of  the  times 
is  toward  less  tariff  restriction  rather  than  more. 

There  was  once  a  hope  held  by  a  party  that  the 
tariff  problem  could  be  solved  on  the  principle  of 
"tariff  for  revenue  only,"  but  if  that  rule  were  liter- 
ally applied  now,  we  probably  should  have  the  highest 
tariff  wall  in  our  history. 

Tariff  has  always  been  relied  on  as  a  tax  producer, 
and  as  a  side  line  it  served  the  industrial  party — the 
greedy  and  short-sighted  financial  party — as  a  monop- 
oly-maker. It  is  right  to  protect  American  industries 
when  this  does  not  mean  protecting  and  coddling  the 
greedy  inefficiency  of  individual  Americans.  This 
country  does  not  protect  the  individual  that  way ;  why 
should  it  protect  a  group  of  individuals  formed  into 
a  corporation?  If  it  is  an  American  industry,  it  can 
meet  the  world.  If  it  cannot  meet  the  world,  it  should 
not  be  artificially  sustained  to  represent  American  in- 
dustry. 

Taxation  is  another  problem  still  in  the  experimen- 
tal room  of  government.  There  never  was  an  ideal  tax 
because  there  never  has  been  an  ideal  expenditure  of 
taxes.  There  has  never  been  a  perfect  basis  of  taxa- 
tion because  we  have  no  basis  of  value.  Many  plans 
have  been  suggested  to  meet  this  lack.  The  single- ' 
taxer  would  make  land  the  basis ;  others  would  take 
a  certain  percentage  of  the  income.  We  try  both  after 
a  fashion,  and  instead  of  people  feeling  that  the  tax 
is  their  contribution  to  the  cost  of  the  benefits  they 
enjoy  under  their  Government,  they  oftener  feel  that 

J94 


TARIFF — TAX  ES — TRA  NSPORTATION 

it  is  a  burden.  The  very  word  has  come  to  have  an 
ugly  sound. 

The  present  administration  must  raise  taxes,  and 
of  recent  months  most  of  the  tax-producing  sources 
have  dried  up.  What  happens  then?  What  does  the 
Government  do  then?  IMaybe  the  Government  will  go 
into  production  to  earn  its  own  money.  We  have 
100,000,000  people  here  who  never  stop  eating,  who 
continue  to  wear  clothes — it  is  a  pretty  good  market 
and  ought  always  to  keep  business  pretty  brisk,  if 
there  were  not  some  kink  in  the  money  machinery 
which  the  Government  says  it  controls. 

It  is  easy  to  say,  "Lower  taxes."'  But  to  stop 
taxes  altogether  might  mean  to  lower  our  Flag.  How 
would  you  like  a  50  per  cent  reduction  in  all  your 
taxes?  Well,  that  could  easily  happen,  and  still  give 
the  Government  40  per  cent  more  than  it  is  now  re- 
ceiving for  the  purposes  of  government,  if  we  were 
not  so  dumbly  tied  up  with  a  system  that  takes  oceans 
of  gold  every  year  for  the  upkeep  of  our  man-killing 
machinery. 

If  the  tax  system  were  even  50  per  cent  perfect; 
if  people  had  a  view  of  the  course  of  their  tax  monies 
which  should  be  half  as  clear  as  their  view  of  the  in- 
fluence of  -their  ballots — that  is,  if  the  people  knew 
their  government,  or  if  the  facts  of  government  were 
such  as  would  make  the  government  desirous  of  hav- 
ing the  people  know  them,  then  the  payment  of  taxes 
would  become  a  pleasant  ceremonial,  like  unfurling  the 
Flag  or  firing  off  firecrackers  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 
Taxes  provide  the  method  by  which  people  enter  most 
closely  into  the  work  of  Government,  yet  nobody  knows 
it.     Fundamentally  there  is  a  wrong,  wrong  principle. 

Then  there  is  Transportation — that  also  is  still  an 
experiment.  Nothing  is  more  arresting  than  the  serv- 
ice breakdown  of  the  railways  five  years  ago  under 
increasing  business,  and  their  fiscal  breakdown  now 
under  increasing  income.  When  more  business  l)rcaks 
a  business,  and  more  income  renders  it  poorer,  there's 
something  deeper  than  mere  mismanagement,  there  is 
something  fundamentally  wrong. 

Of  cotn-sc,  fiscally,  our  railroads  are  paying  for 
multitudes  of   dead   horses.     (Kimblers   first   controlled 


FORD   IDEALS 

our  railroads,  robbed  them  till  there  was  no  more  gam- 
ble in  them,  and  left  it  to  honest  management  to  pay 
the  lOU's.  Railroads  developed  artificially  because 
their  gambling  controllers  strangled  the  railroad's  side 
partner,  the  canal — the  canal,  which,  had  it  been  left 
alone  to  perform  its  functions,  would  have  assisted  the 
railroad  to  grow  on  a  more  natural  basis.  But,  no, 
the  gamblers  filled  the  canals  with  rubbish,  and  today 
the  railroads  are  breaking  down  for  lack  of  waterways 
to  help  them. 

Our  railroads  are  striking  illustrations  of  the  retri- 
bution which  overtakes  even  a  national  and  interna- 
tional business  which  is  victimized  by  speculation.  By 
being  regarded  as  mere  financial  devices,  railroads  were 
cheated  of  the  mechanical  development  which  today 
would  have  enabled  them  to  meet  the  changed  condi- 
tions. Worse  than  being  inefficient,  worse  than  being 
near  bankruptcy,  our  railroads  are  not  admirable  even 
in  the  railroad  sense.  They  are  equipped  wrongly'  and 
operated  wrongly  and  they  never  will  be  efficient  and 
they  never  will  be  profitable  again  until  they  have  been 
changed  from  the  bottom.  You  can't  run  railroads 
from  a  speculator's  office. 

There,  then,  are  three  problems,  all  of  them  touch- 
ing our  times  pretty  vitally — Tariff,  Taxes,  Transpor- 
tation. Each  of  them  a  field  for  dreams  that  come 
true. 


396 


Illusions  Are  Not  Faith 


MANY  a  man  thinks  he  has  lost  faith  when  he 
has  lost  only  his  illnsions.  It  is  one  of  the  pen- 
alties we  pay  for  not  making  proper  distinctions  hc- 
tween  values.  The  power  of  illusion  is  so  great,  that 
when  the  illusion  vanishes  we  think  that  the  bottom 
has  fallen  out  of  reality;  the  truth  is  that  only  the 
mists  have  been  dispelled.  The  mists  sometimes  give 
illusions  of  flowery  meadows  beyond;  when  they  lift 
we  see  a  hard  road. 

Illusions  can  be  lost,  but  faith  cannot.  A  good 
deal  of  credulity  can  be  turned  into  skepticism,  but 
faith  cannot.  A  man  may  lose  many  things,  but  he 
cannot  lose  anything  that  he  once  possessed  as  part 
of  his  very  self  ;  and  faith  is  such  a  part. 

It  is  perhaps  impossible  correctly  to  see  illusions 
until  they  have  vanished,  because  they  till  so  large  a 
part  of  the  foreground  of  our  minds  while  we  have 
them.  They  are  like  the  dreams  of  youth  which  are 
very  real  while  they  last,  and  even  after  they  pass 
leave  fragrant  vestiges  behind,  but  which  in  the  clearer 
light  of  reality  we  see  to  have  been  wrongly  placed. 
They  were  beautiful,  but  they  were  not  true:  at  least 
they  were  not  yet  true.  The}'  may  liaxe  been  lore- 
gleams,  as  when  a  sunny  day  foretells  the  Spring  but 
is  succeeded  by  weeks  of  raw  and  changeable  weather. 

Illusions  are  numerous  and  take  their  co'.t)r  trom 
the  man  himself.  Perhaps  the  nidst  common  of  them 
all  relate  to  ourselves  and  society.  There  is  a  com- 
fortable feeling  which  most  of  us  possess  at  some  time 
in  our  lives  and  wliich  is  based  on  the  supposition  that 
all  men  are  good  and  unselfisli.  This  feeling  seem> 
to  I)e  cotifirmed  (hu'ing  youth,  lor  as  a  rule  the  world 
does  not  show  its  hard  side  to  young  peoi)le.  A  great 
defect  in  ordinar\-  education  is  the  teaching  that  ever\- 
one  is  all  right,  when  later  experience,  it  it  be  normal, 
cannot  but  show  that  evt'rvone  is  not  all  riglit.  I  liere 
is  a   sort    of    education    which   tends    to   make   us   sott 


FORD   IDEALS 

and  overdeveloped  on  the  conciliatory  side,  so  pathet- 
ically anxious  for  harmony  that  we  are  afraid  to  stand 
up  for  the  truth  which  comes  like  a  divisive  sword  and 
cuts  men  into  parties. 

Society  is  suffering  a  reaction  from  that  attitude 
now,  because  of  the  weakness  in  ordinary  thinking 
which  leads  the  ordinary  mortal,  for  a  time  at  least,  to 
say  to  himself,  "Everybody  is  for  himself  alone;  I 
will  therefore  be  for  myself  alone,  and  the  devil  take 
the  rest." 

There  are  people  who  in  their  reaction  turn  to  a 
deeper  dye  of  the  thing  which  they  thought  was  not 
there  and  have  found  to  be  there ;  their  reaction  is  not 
toward  the  actual  condition  as  a  real  condition  but 
incomplete,  and  then  goes  still  further  toward  the  con- 
dition that  ought  to  exist.  That  is,  men  disappointed 
in  their  illusions  as  to  human  society  often  turn  de- 
fensive and  predatory,  instead  of  constructive. 

That  is  the  cause  of  what  is  called  "class  conscious- 
ness" today — a  predatory  attitude  toward  a  class  to 
which  one  conceives  die  does  not  belong.  It  is  seen 
at  its  most  fateful  development  in  Russia,  and  its  ex- 
istence is  a  warning  to  all  men. 

There  is  enough  good  in  society  to  preserve  it  for 
all  social  purposes,  but  it  is  not  of  the  ice  cream  party 
or  missionary  kind.  It  doesn't  go  out  in  large  and 
generous  waves,  but  it  is  there,  waiting  to  greet  its 
own  kind  when  it  comes  along.  But  some  men's  bit- 
terness upon  the  loss  of  their  illusions  is  so  strong 
that  they  miss  the  very  thing  for  which  their  natures 
are  searching.  In  the  great  social  upheaval  in  Russia, 
there  is  a  terrible  lack  of  idealism.  As  one  who  has 
been  through  it  says,  the  idealists  become  rapacious 
hypocrites  as  soon  as  they  come  into  power.  No  po- 
litical or  social  philosophy  can  be  blamed  for  this ;  it 
is  simply  human  nature. 

Illusions  are  fnie  things  to  keep  us  afloat  until  we 
find  our  feet,  and  the  best  thing  that  can  be  said  of 
them  is  that  they  trend  mostly  in  the  right  direction. 
If  they  were  not  mainly  tinged  with  the  right  color, 
they  would  not  last  long  as  illusions.  Uncomfortable 
illusions  depart  sooner  than  any  other,  for  truth  drives 


ILLUSIONS  ARE  NOT  FAITH 

them  out;  if  truth  is  kindlier  to  our  comfortable  il- 
lusions, it  may  be  because  these  are  more  akin  to  truth 
itself.  However,  illusion  is  at  best  a  mirage,  while 
faith  has  something  solid  about  it — it  is  perhaps  the 
solidest  thing  in  the  world.  All  faith  at  last  is  one 
faith,  though  the  expressions  of  it  may  vary. 

People  do  not  commonly  think  of  faith  as  solid  and 
substantial;  they  regard  it  as  an  airy  fairy  nothing, 
colored  balloons  which  one  sends  up  for  one's  own 
amusement.  This  is  because  they  have  confused  faith 
with  something  else. 

Faith  is  know-so  more  than  hope-so.  Faith  may 
begin  as  a  conscious  preference ;  it  ends  as  an  ironclad 
proof.  The  man  who  has  faith  knoivs.  There  may 
1)6  still  much  work  to  be  done  on  the  drawing  board 
or  in  the  experimental  room  to  make  his  faith  articu- 
late, but  nevertheless  he  knows  just  as  assuredly  as 
if  the  thing  were  the  commonplace  of  everyday  agree- 
ment. 

Faith  is  a  higher  grade  of  intelligence  and  is  ac- 
cessible even  to  those  whose  brains  do  not  move  easily 
in  routine  methods,  who  do  not  manufacture  their 
thoughts  according  to  the  rujes  made  and  established 
by  the  professionals. 

The  rule  ought  to  be,  the  less  illusion  the  more 
faith,  because  illusion  may  be  balmy,  but  faith  is  dyna- 
mic. Illusions  are  sedative,  faith  is  stimulative.  .\ 
man  rests  on  his  illusions,  he  climbs  on  his  faith.  Il- 
lusions grow  less  and  less  as  life  goes  on;  faith  grows 
more  and  more.    Illusions  are  many,  faith  is  one. 

Faith  is  the  material  out  of  which  all  the  things 
that  are  yet  to  be  are  made.  It  is  an  invisible  and 
plastic  substance  capable  of  taking  upon  itself  the 
reality  of  visible  form.  Not  only  is  it  substance,  but 
it  is  force  as  well.  It  probably  does  not  create  any- 
thing that  already  does  not  exist,  but  it  h;i^  power  to 
bring  the  invisible  things  into  the  \isil)K'  plane  wlu've 
all  men  may  use  them.  I'\'iith  is  the  ni.ittcr  out  ot 
which  new  pattern  things  are  made,  and  attiT  lhe\- 
ai)pear,  then  common])lace  men  may  make  tlu'  same 
things  out  of  wood  or  law>  or  systems,  or  wliatc'\er 
it  may  be. 

We    talk    about    having    f;iitli    in    ourst'Krs.      Well, 


FORD   IDEALS 

if  we  know  what  that  means,  it  is  true;  but  too  often 
it  means  only  a  stimulated  self-confidence,  the  assump- 
tion and  presumption  of  a  "front.'"  But  plainly  and 
simply,  faith  must  be  in  ourselves,  because  there  we 
make  the  only  contact  with  reality  that  we  can  make. 
It  is  faith  in  ourselves  as  having  become  at  last  a  use- 
ful part  of  the  whole,  that  the  term  really  signifies. 

We  sometimes  talk  about  faith  and  sight  as  if  they 
were  opposed ;  they  are  the  same  thing.  The  only 
man  who  walks  by  sight  is  the  man  who  walks  by  faith, 
for  he  is  the  only  man  who  can  see.  Nobody  sees 
anything  until  faith  has  brought  it  within  the  sphere  of 
vision. 

Faith  is  the  sixth  sense  that  completes  all  the  others 
and  it  shows  itself  chiefly  in  loyalty  to  Duty,  for  Duty 
sums  up  all  the  creative  work  we  do.  Our  career  is 
our  duty,  and  our  duty  is  our  contribution  to  life. 
Creative  work  is  not  a  fine  and  pleasant  frenzy ;  it  is 
often  doing  what  we  would  not  choose  to  do,  for  we 
are  chosen  oftener  than  we  choose.  A  man  plodding 
along  at  what  he  knows  to  be  his  duty  is  an  agent  of 
the  universe,  in  his  right  place.  Not  only  is  he  doing 
something,  but  something  is  being  done  for  him.  Faith 
works  changes  both  in  the  agent  and  the  objective.  It 
is  the  creative  medium,  without  any  limit  that  has  been 
found. 


What  Makes  Immigration 
a  "Problem?" 


THl'2  ininiigration  (juestion  has  come  to  the  front 
again  and  gives  another  illustration  of  the  dift'i- 
culty  of  deciding  natif)nal  policies  with  rigid  mathe- 
matical precision.  The  fact  that  this  question  occurs 
is  proof  that  something  is  wrong ;  the  fact  that  no 
oflfered  solution  can  he  considered  as  final  is  proof 
that  we  have  not  yet  found  the  princi])le  that  >hould 
govern  us. 

Two  points  are  fixed,  of  which  it  will  he  very  hard 
to  dispose.  One  is  our  national  tradition  as  a  place 
of  refuge  for  all  jjeople.  It  will  he  impossible  to  cause 
the  people  of  the  United  States  to  turn  their  faces  like 
flint  against  the  ])0])ulations  of  the  Old  World  who 
wish  to  come  to  us.  We  have  stood  before  the  world 
as  the  open  door  for  all  wlio  would  begin  their  lives 
again  in  a  cf)ndition  of  liberty:  we  have  ne\er  refu-^ed 
sanctuary  to  the  ])crs(in  tlceing  from  persecution. 

The  other  point  has  alread\'  Ix'cn  made :  our  na- 
tional attitude  is  the  lirst  :  the  plight  of  the  alien  is 
the  second;  they  merge  together.  '\'n  close  our  doors 
is  not  a  national  act  alone,  it  reacts  upon  human  beings 
elsewhere.     .\nd  that   we  shall  ever  be  loath  tn  do. 

That  is  to  sav.  perhajjs,  that  we  are  incurable  sen- 
timentalists on  this  cjuestion.  We  ma\  admit  this,  even 
while  we  keej)  a  shrewd  eye  <>n  llidse  who  diligently 
plav  upon  our  sentimentality   for  their  own  purjHises. 

We  luav  admit  most  of  what  the  spokesmen  tell  u<. 
too — the  s])okesmen  who  are  mnw  interested  in  other 
races  than  thev  are  in  America.  We  may  admit,  tor 
instance,  that  this  conntr\  was  made  b\  immigrant-;. 
So  it  was.  The  jMoneers  were  immi;^r;mls.  Tbe\- 
came  to  a  wildei-ncs-,  and  made  it  blossom.  I  be\'  came 
to  a  bleak  and  stormy  coast  and  fi!l(>d  it  with  commerce. 
It   is  impossible  to  honor  them  too  much. 

We  (uudit  to  be   frank  enougb,  bowexer,  to  -ee  that 


FORD   IDEALS 


not  all  modern  immigrants  are  of  pioneer  quality.  It 
is  one  thing  to  come  to  a  country  to  help  make  it,  and 
quite  another  thing  to  come  to  a  country  as  to  a  ripe 
tree  to  pick  it.  There  ivas  no  immigration  problem  in 
the  United  States  so  long  as  immigrants  came  to  help 
make  the  country.  The  country  knew  its  friends,  felt 
the  impulse  of  new  life  with  every  shipload  of  those 
who  came  seeking  a  place  to  bestow  their  best.  But 
as  soon  as  the  type  of  immigration  changed  to  include 
people  who  came  to  pluck  the  country  of  its  good 
things,  immediately  the  body  of  the  nation  felt  its 
vitality  decreasing,  as  with  some  slow  insidious  disease, 
and  presently  we  knew  that  we  had  an  immigration 
problem. 

The  pioneers  came  on  their  own  initiative.  A  very 
large  proportion  of  those  who  come  now,  are  brought; 
they  are  transported  as  literally  as  an  army  is ;  they 
do  not  form  that  surging  forward  of  the  free  and  in- 
dependent portions  of  other  peoples  which  character- 
ized our  former  immigration  tidal  waves.  No  country 
can  have  too  much  of  the  pioneer  spirit.,  too  much  of 
that  loyalty  which  contributes  to  the  upbuilding  of  its 
institutions. 

But  what  have  we  been  getting  in  this  country, 
particularly  of  late?  What  have  we  been  importing 
besides  immigrants?  The  immigration  of  destructive 
ideas  has  been  enormous,  too.  It  is  easier  to  deal 
with  immigrants,  in  whatever  condition  of  physical, 
mental  or  financial  decrepitude  they  may  come  to  us, 
than  with  the  false  ideas  which  so  many  of  them  bring. 
That  is  one  of  the  conditions  that  make  the  immigra- 
tion question :  we  are  importing  something  else  besides 
people  and  the  danger  of  disease ;  we  are  importing 
dangerous  and  false  ideas — dangerous  because  false. 

Now  America  is  on  the  right  road,  or  she  is  on  the 
wrong  road.  The  United  States  stands  for  personal 
liberty  within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  public  good, 
and  for  equality  before  the  law,  or  it  does  not.  Our 
Constitution  is  the  charter  of  a  proper  kind  of  national 
life,  or  it  is  not.  We  nnist  take  one  side  or  the  other 
on  these  matters,  and  we  nntst  classify  men  according 
to  the  side  they  choose.    If  they  arc  of  the  opinion  that 


WHAT   MAKES    IM  MKiRATlON    A    "pROBI.EM"? 

tlie  United  States  ought  to  be  changed  into  something 
else,  let  them  be  so  classified.  They,  however,  cannot 
be  considered  as  citizens  contributing  to  the  upbuilding 
of  this  country.  If  there  is  a  class  of  i)eoi)le  who  come 
to  us  saying,  "We;  are  the  apostles  of  a  new  era;  your 
way  of  doing  things  is  wrong;  your  whole  system  must 
be  changed,"  wc  are  entitled  to  say  in  reply,  "'Ihat 
many  of  our  ways  are  im])erfect,  we  have  long  known  ; 
we  are  trying  to  perfect  them ;  tell  us  how  it  is  that  a 
light  has  shone  on  you  with  reference  to  American 
problems  that  has  never  shone  on  us ;  show  us  what 
you  have  behind  you  in  achievement  and  then  we  shall 
consider  your  fitness  to  become  our  rulers." 

And,  for  the  most  part,  we  fmd  that  these  people 
have  no  constructive  record  at  all,  and  have  nothing 
within  or  uj)on  them  that  recommends  them  to  us  as 
the  friends  of  the  American  spirit.  They  may  i)rop- 
agate  the  idea  that  Americans  think  them  dangerous 
only  because  they  are  dangerous  to  certain  practices 
by  which  some  Americans  practice:  they  are  wrong; 
we  think  them  dangerous  because  they  run  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  America. 

The  immigration  proljlem  is  not  only  a  (|ue^lion  of 
numbers.  The  country  is  not  in  danger  of  being  over- 
populated.  There  are  still  great  areas  of  land  waiting 
for  people.  It  is  not  the  number  of  the  newcomers 
that  constitutes  the  problem,  but  their  unwillingness  to 
begin  as  ])ioneers,  with  the  land,  and  their  unwilling- 
ness to  become  American  in  the  .American  sense. 

This,  of  course,  is  due  to  several  causes.  And  be- 
fore the  immigration  question  can  be  tackled  satisfac- 
torily, a  number  of  things  must  l)e  done. 

The  custom  of  hawking  al)out  lun-ope  tor  immi- 
grants who  have  lea-t  to  leave  should  be  prohibited. 
W'c  are  getting  now  those  classes  which  their  home 
governments  are  gladdest  to  get  rid  of.  Indeed,  their 
home  governments  are  so  glad  to  be  rid  ot  them  that 
they  facilitate  their  i)rogre>>  hither. 

The  ctistom  of  certain  socictit's  in  the  I'nitcd  .States 
of  assisting  th(^usands  of  immigrant^  to  e\a(Ie  the  law 
bv  providing  them  with  the  amount  of  money  re(iuircd 

403 


FORD    IDEALS 


should  be  stopped.  The  same  fold  of  bills  brings  any 
number  of  immigrants  into  the  country,  thus  destroy- 
ing the  virtue  of  the  law  which  makes  possession  of  a 
certain  sum  an  indication  of  certain  desirable  qualities. 

The  custom  of  immigrants  settling  in  the  cities 
should  be  so  regulated  as  practically  to  be  stopped. 
What  immigration  is  doing  for  us  now  is  simply  ex- 
tending the  slums  of  our  large  cities  until  they  threaten 
to  taint  every  part  of  every  community.  The  United 
States  should  assume  the  right  which  other  govern- 
ments have  assumed  and  say  to  the  immigrants,  "You 
may  go  here  and  settle  where  you  will,  but  you  may 
not  go  there."  President  Taft  once  said  he  wished 
that  Russian  Jew  immigrants  would  go  elsewhere  than 
to  the  cities.  "The  more  we  spread  them  out  in  the 
West  the  better  I  like  it,"  he  said.  "I  have  tried  to 
help  it  along  so  we  could  help  them  directly  on  to  the 
plains  of  Texas." 

This  custom  of  city  settlement  is  encouraged,  it  is 
believed,  merely  to  give  power  to  racial  rulers  which 
set  themselves  up  in  every  large  city.  Settled  on  the 
land,  the  immigrant  would  more  readily  imbibe  Ameri- 
can ideas  and  would  be  less  amenable  to  the  leaders' 
plans,  and  thus  a  leadership  built  u])on  so-called  "racial 
solidarity,"  but  really  upon  ignorance  of  American 
ways,  would  fall.  This  type  of  leadership  is  a  very 
grave  danger  in  this  countr\-.  and  it  is  the  cause  of 
some  verv  disquieting  manifestations  in  our  national 
life. 

^lore  stringent  rules  of  citizenshij)  should  be  made. 
The  immigrant  should  be  more  stringently  required  to 
look  forward  toward  citizenship  as  an  important  part 
of  his  career,  and  the  standard  of  the  requirements  of 
citizenship  should  be  much  higher  and  more  strictly 
api)b'ed.  It  should  not  be  more  difficnlt  to  acquire 
meml)ership  in  a  lodge  than  it  is  to  acquire  member- 
ship in  the  citizenship  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
W'e  have  l)een  far  tof)  neirliyent. 


404 


The  Three  Foundation  Arts 


No  MAN  is  more  dangerous,  in  war  or  in  peace, 
than  the  man  who  tries  to  stop  the  processes  by 
which  the  legitimate  needs  of  the  people  are  supi)lied. 
When  a  man  attempts  that  in  time  of  war,  he  is  dealt 
with  as  a  traitor.  His  character  does  not  change  when 
he  carries  on  his  work  in  time  of  peace,  although  his 
punishment  does.  The  reasons  which  move  him  to  act 
at  one  time  are  precisely  the  same  as  at  another.  He 
wishes  to  aid  some  cause  by  breaking  down  the  estab- 
lished character  of  the  people's  lives. 

Everyone  remembers  what  was  thought  during  the 
war  of  men  who  tried  to  induce  the  farmers  to  raise 
less  food,  the  shop  workers  to  complete  less  work,  the 
railwaymen  to  invent  mmecessarv  delavs. 

Now.  supi)ose  there  is  today  a  return  of  that  same 
I)rogram,  is  it  to  be  regarded  as  any  more  dcNirable 
now  than  it  was  then?  If  a  thing  is  good  and  right 
to  do,  is  there  ever  any  justification  for  a  cons])iracy 
to  stop  doing  it?  "Set  there  is  considerable  proj)aganda 
at  work  toda_\-  to  make  men  (|uit  doing  the  right  things 
for  society.  The  farmer  is  urged  to  raise  no  more 
than  he  needs:  the  sho])man  i<  urged  to  do  no  more 
than  he  must;  the  transport  man  is  encouraged  to  let 
society  go  hang. 

.And  ihis  ])ropagan(la  is  ba\ing  a  certain  amount 
of  effect.  To  under>tand  it.  however,  you  must  not 
too  hastilv  condenm  it.  It  i^  not  enougli  to  >ay  that 
the  program  is  wrong  in  c'\er\-  w;i\  in  which  it  i>  po>^- 
sible  to  1)('  wrong.  \\ C  mu-'t  undcr^taiKl  wlu'  men 
are  jiersuadcd  to  >uch  a  wrong  program.  Men  di  i  not 
enter  wliolesalc  into  a  con^pirac}-  tn  dn  wvnwj^.  Auumi- 
cans  do  not  undertake  t^  injure  -^ocictx-  tor  tlu'  tun  or 
malice  of  it.  'rhe\-  lia\c  been  pcr-^r.aded  that  it  i^  a 
nuvms  to  a  good  end  a  har^h  mean--,  pcrliaj)-.  but  to 
be  condoned   for  the  ^ake  of  what  it  ba-~  in  \!ew. 


FORD    IDEALS 


That  is  the  point.  Take  the  farmer's  case,  for  ex- 
ample. Many  farmers  are  saying  now  that  they  will 
not  raise  any  more  this  season  then  they  need — little 
more,  anyway.  The  farmer  is,  in  many  cases,  sore  in 
his  mind.  Things  have  gone  badly  with  him — not  in 
failure  of  the  crops,  nor  in  the  enmity  of  the  elements, 
nor  yet  in  the  loss  of  public  esteem  for  his  profession — 
but  in  a  money  way.  He  has  as  much  of  the  wealth 
of  the  earth  as  he  ever  had,  much  more  in  fact,  but  it 
has  not  meant  so  much  in  money.  Farming  has  ceased 
to  be  only  a  matter  of  making  the  earth  perform  her 
yearly  miracle ;  it  has  been  hooked  up  with  banking ; 
and,  of  course,  the  taint  of  money  exerts  a  disturbing 
influence. 

•   Wheat  will  make  as  much  bread  as  before,  but  it 
will  not  make  as  much  money. 

Now,  men  have  been  busy  telling  the  farmer  that  if 
he  will  forbid  the  earth  to  yield  as  much  food  this  year, 
if  he  will  exercise  a  prohibition  over  the  beneficent 
forces  of  nature,  prices  will  go  up  next  year. 

Doubtless  they  will,  and  with  them  will  go  up  the 
cry  of  the  people  because  of  a  scarcity  of  food. 

The  farmers  are  persuaded  to  do  this  as  a  protest 
against  the  banking  and  financial  system  that  juggled 
their  prices  downward.  That  is  to  say,  farming  has 
been  advised  to  annex  the  evils  of  the  financial  system 
in  order  to  get  even.  It  is  a  clear  case  of  two  wrongs 
being  counseled  in  order  to  make  a  right. 

The  farmers  do  not  deliberate!}'  say.  "We'll  make 
food  scarce  in  the  cities."  They  say,  "We'll  do  some- 
thing to  check  this  game  the  masters  of  the  money 
market  have  been  playing  on  us."  Yet  the  latter 
means  the  former.  And  even  then,  it  does  not  mean 
that  the  game  will  be  won.  Instead  of  food  there  will 
be  prices,  and  nothing  was  ever  sustained  on  prices 
alone. 

Now,  having  this  understanding  of  what  the  farm- 
ers are  taught  will  result  from  their  action,  let  us  see 
how  the  whole  case  stands. 

Society  is  like  a  city.  There  are  some  functions 
which,  in  a  city,  can  never  stop  without  disaster:  they 

406 


THE   THREK   FOUNDATION    ARTS 

are  the  primal  functions,  for  the  benefit  of  which  peo- 
ple gather  together  in  cities  of  similar  communities. 
They  are  such  things  as  water,  light,  police  and  fire 
protection. 

Now,  these  things  must  he  su()plie(l.  regardless.  It 
the  city  is  wild  or  drunk,  still  the  firemen  and  police- 
men must  stand  guard,  and  the  water  station  must 
keep  pumping.  If  the  city  government  is  inefficient 
and  the  revenues  of  the  city  wasted,  still  policemen 
must  pace  their  beats  and  fire  stations  must  keep  the 
watch  alert.  There  are  some  duties  which,  if  deserted, 
destroy  the  last  chance  of  betterment  and  reform. 

In  the  great  national  community,  in  the  great  world 
community,  there  are  certain  primary  functions  with- 
out which  modern  life  is  simply  impossible,  and  even 
primitive  life  is  im|X)ssible. 

These  are  Agriculture,  Manufacture  and  Trans- 
portation, the  three  great  arts.  Community  life  is  im- 
possible without  them.  They  hold  the  world  together. 
Raising  things,  making  things  and  carrying  things  are 
as  primitive  as  human  need  and  yet  as  modern  as  any- 
thing can  be.  Yet  we  cannot  get  beyond  them.  They 
are  of  the  essence  of  ])hysical  life.  They  are  to  the 
world  what  water,  light  and  fire  protection  are  to  the 
city — indisj^ensable.  When  they  cease,  commimity  life 
is  no  longer  possible. 

Now,  the  truth  is  this:  things  get  very  much  out  of 
shape  in  this  present  world  under  the  ])resent  system, 
but  the  hope  we  have  of  a  betterment  of  matters  is  that 
certain  things  are  going  to  stand  t'lrm.  The  basis  for 
a  better  state  of  things  is  here,  if  someone  does  not 
destroy  the  basis.  As  long  as  the  foundations  stand 
sure,  a  I>etter  building  is  always  ])ossil)le.  Destrov  the 
foundation,  and  no  building  at  all  is  possible. 

The  great  delusion  to(la\'  is  to  make  the  Men  ot  the 
b'oundation  feel  that  thev  mav  tritle  with  the  ])art  they 
have  been  given  bv  Destinv  to  pla\-  in  tlic  social  proc- 
ess. Thev  are  being  told  that  tlu'\-  -dvc  the  \ictinis, 
when  as  a  matter  of  fact  tlic}'  are  tlic  world'-^  chict 
ho])e,  sociallv  and  econoniicalK'.  If  thi'\-  ^taiid  tirni. 
they  will  help  bring  about  the  cM'der  that   i^  de-ircd  ;  it 

4(17 


FORD    IDKALS 

they  go  fooling  with  the  fundamentals  committed  to 
their  care,  no  one  knows  what  will  happen. 

Now,  we  have  the  main  timbers  for  the  new  order, 
whatever  it  may  be  and  whenever  it  may  come.  These 
main  timbers  are  the  men  and  means  to  gro7V  things, 
to  make  things  and  to  carry  things.  These  will  be  the 
hold-overs,  so  to  speak,  or  a  better  figure  still,  they  are 
the  bridges  all  set  to  see  us  across  without  disaster.  As 
long  as  Agriculture.  Manufacture  and  Transportation 
go  on.  the  world  can  carry  any  economic  or  social 
change. 

But.  if  this  bridge  is  destroyed,  who  knows  what 
will  come?  And  if  it  is  destroyed,  it  will  only  have 
to  be  rebuilt  again,  and  of  the  same  men  and  means, 
and  for  the  same  purposes — growing  food,  making 
utensils,  carrying  goods. 

It  seems  that  if  the  men  engaged  in  the  three  arts 
were  only  able  to  see  the  part  they  play,  that  they  are 
really  the  great  natural  e'ements  which  prevent  the  old 
order  from  being  as  bad  as  it  might  be,  and  are  abso- 
lutely indispensable  to  the  new  order,  they  would  re- 
gard their  responsibility  more  highly  than  the  prop- 
agandists wish  them  to  do. 

'llie  best  service  any  man  can  now  do  to  bring 
about  a  better  state  of  things  is  to  be  absolutely  loyal 
to  the  thing  he  is  doing  in  the  Three  Principal  Arts. 
Sj)eculators  may  have  to  stop,  but  not  farmers.  Money- 
makers may  have  to  quit.  l)ut  not  plow-makers.  These 
necessary  things  tide  over  anv  break,  and  are  already 
the  substance  of  the  newer  time. 

Anyone  laboring  in  the  Three  Principal  Arts  today 
has  a  hand  in  remaking  the  world  for  his  children. 
Anyone  curtailing  them  is  holding  back  society. 


408 


\  Few  Remarks  on  Educalioi 


EVEI\\'  little  while  the  old  question  is  hrou^dit  iij) 
again— "Does  lulucation  Educate?'" — and  we 
have  more  or  less  entertaininj;  demonstrations  of  the 
ignorance  of  college  students,  the  illiteracy  of  the  read- 
ing ])ul)Mc,  numerous  diverting  tests  of  knowledge,  and 
dehates  concerning  the  difference  hetween  wisdom  and 
learning. 

It  is  one  of  our  favorite  s])orts,  this  hahit  of  getting 
fun  out  of  the  question  of  knowledge:  we  make  fun  of 
men  who  never  went  to  college,  because  they  did  not 
go;  and  we  make  fim  of  men  who  went  to  college, 
because  going  did  a]:)parently  so  little  for  them. 

There  never  was  and  probably  never  will  be  a  sys- 
tem devised  that  will  put  brains  into  men's  head--,  and 
until  such  a  system  appears  we  must  expect  to  find  in 
men  the  same  differences  that  have  always  marked 
them,  whether  with  books  or  without  them,  in  or  out 
of  college. 

Take  a  grouji  of  wholly  illiterate  men.  men  who 
cannot  read  a  date  on  the  calendar.  wh<i  cannot  write 
their  own  names,  and  you  will  lind  a  difference  in  brain 
])ower  atuong  them.  l'^(|ually  illiterate,  one  man  will 
exhibit  more  native  intelligence;  he  has  brains  even  it 
he  has  little  book  knowledge:  he  has  foresight,  in-^ight. 
initiative;  he  knows  wliat  be  know-,  and.  tberetore. 
possesses  confidence  and  a   .sense  ot    ma-tery. 

Passing  that  group  through  coHege  would  prob;ibl\ 
not   change   the   comparative   brain    vahK"> ;   one   woid<l 
still  be  brighter  than  the  others.      Ibe  a\tTage  ^^i  abilit\ 
might   be   raised,   but    there   wouM    be   no    c^Nontial    ci) 
largement  of  native  briiin  ])ower. 

Just  as  there  are  >ome  -tone>  that  will  not  take  :i 
]iolish.  so  there  are  minds  that  cannot  ]w  stand.-irdi/i'd 
so  far  as  knowledge  and  the  abilitx'  to  u-e  it  i-  con- 
cernecl. 


FORD    IDEALS 


An  able  man  is  a  man  who  can  do  things,  and  his 
ability  to  do  things  is  dependent  on  what  he  has  in  him, 
and  what  he  has  in  him  depends  on  what  he  started 
with  and  what  he  has  done  to  increase  and  discipline  it. 

An  educated  man  is  not  one,  whose  memory  is 
trained  to  carry  a  few  dates  in  history,  but  one  whose 
mind  can  accomplish  things.  A  man  who  cannot  think 
is  not  an  educated  man,  however  many  college  degrees 
he  may  have  acquired.  Thinking  is  the  hardest  work 
any  one  can  do,  which  is  probably  the  reason  we  have 
so  few  thinkers. 

There  are  two  extremes  to  be  avoided  ;  one  is  the 
attitude  of  contempt  toward  education,  the  other  is  the 
tragic  snobbery  of  assuming  that  marching  through  an 
educational  system  is  a  sure  cure  for  ignorance  and 
mediocrity.  One  benefit  that  education  can  confer  on 
a  man  is  to  give  him  an  equal  start  with  his  fellows. 
Sometimes  even  that  is  not  an  advantage,  but  in  the 
main  and  for  the  general  run  of  human  beings,  per- 
haps it  is.  You  cannot  learn  in  any  school  what  the 
world  is  going  to  do  next  year,  but  you  can  learn  some 
of  the  things  which  the  world  has  tried  to  do  in  former 
years,  and  where  it  failed,  and  why  it  succeeded. 

If  education  consisted  in  warning  the  young  stu- 
dent of  some  of  the  exploded  false  theories  on  which 
men  have  tried  to  build,  so  that  he  may  be  saved  the 
loss  of  time  in  finding  this  out  by  bitter  experience,  its 
good  would  be  unquestioned.  One  sees  a  great  deal 
along  this  line  among  the  amateur  inventors  of  the  day. 
Inventors,  by  the  way,  are  not  made  by  education,  but 
if  they  have  enough  education  to  save  them  from  ])ut- 
tcring  away  over  the  mistakes  that  have  been  con- 
clusively proved  to  be  mistakes,  it  saves  them  time. 
There  are  men  at  work  today  on  theories  fundamen- 
tally wrong,  but  they  do  not  know  that  other  men  have 
followed  that  road  and  have  had  to  come  back.  An 
education  which  consisted  of  signposts  indicating  the 
failures  and  the  fallacies  of  the  past,  doubtlessly  would 
be  very  useful.  If  education  had  as  its  objective  the 
putting  of  the  student  in  possession  of  the  world  up- 
to-date,  so  that  leaving  the  school  he  could  start  in  step 

410 


A    FEW    REMARKS    OX    EDUCATION 

with  humanity,  it  would  be  a  great  service.  lUit 
whether  this  is  the  objective,  it  may  be  better  to  let 
educators  themselves  decide. 

It  is  not  education  and  it  is  not  learning  to  be  in 
possession  of  the  theories  of  a  lot  of  professors  who 
do  not  know  and  never  will  know.  Speculation  is  very 
interesting,  and  sometimes  profitable,  but  it  is  not  edu- 
cation. To  be  learned  in  science  today  is  merely  to 
be  aware  of  a  hundred  theories  that  have  not  been 
proved.  And  not  to  know  what  those  theories  are  is 
to  be  "uneducated,"  "ignorant,"  and  so  forth.  P.ut 
neither  the  man  who  knows  these  theories  nor  the  man 
who  does  not  know  them,  really  knoivs  anything.  If 
knowledge  of  guesses  is  learning,  then  one  may  l)e- 
come  learned  by  the  simple  expedient  of  making  his 
own  guesses,  and  by  the  same  token  he  can  dub  the 
rest  of  the  world  "ignorant"  because  it  does  not  know 
what  his  guesses  are. 

But  the  best  that  education  can  do  for  a  man  is 
to  put  him  in  possession  of  his  powers,  give  him  con- 
trol of  the  tools  with  which  destiny  has  endowed  him, 
and  teach  him  how  to  think.  Tlie  college  renders  its 
best  service  as  an  intellectual  gymnasium,  in  whicli 
mental  muscle  is  developed  and  the  student  strength- 
ened to  do  what  he  can. 

To  say,  however,  that  mental  gymnastics  can  only 
be  had  in  college  is  not  true,  as  every  educator  know-. 
A  man's  real  education  begins  after  he  has  left  school, 
as  any  university  graduate  will  tell  you.  True  education 
is  gained  through  the  discipline  of  lite. 

The  trouble  is  not  with  tlie  scliools  altoi^cther 
(though  their  fine-sidedness  in  filling  ihc  held  with 
books  and  leaving  no  place  for  tlie  training  ol  vyc  and 
ear  and  hand  is  recognized),  but  with  the  public  illu- 
sion that  schools  can  do  for  a  voung  man  what  he  niu-t 
do  for  himself.  If  voung  men  come  out  of  cnllcgr  un- 
educated it  is  their  own  lault,  and  the  -^anic  wi  luld  be 
true  if  it  were  a  canning  factorv  they  cauir  out  ol,  or 
a  boiler  sho]),  or  anvwhere  else.  .\n\'  place,  any  work 
offers  an  opportunitv  for  educalinn,  but  it  i^  -^onuMliiuLj 


FORD    IDEALS 


the  recipient  takes,  it  is  not  something  that  can  be 
handed  to  him. 

Here  is  a  farmer  boy  working  in  the  greatest  school 
that  ever  existed,  walking  all  day  long  on  the  greatest 
textbook  ever  written.  If  he  could  master  the  secrets 
of  one  acre,  or  even  one  square  foot  of  land,  he  would 
be  a  learned  man.  There  are  more  things  to  be  learned 
on  one  farmstead  than  in  Harvard,  Yale  and  Prince- 
ton put  together ;  though  it  sometimes  occurs  that  the 
young  man  doesn't  know  this  until  he  has  gone  through 
school  first. 

We  are  a  nation  of  casual  readers.  We  read  to 
escape  thinking.  Reading  has  become  a  dope  habit 
with  us.  Learning  has  become  a  thing  of  accent  and 
of  facts.  It  is  "learning"  to  have  read  the  latest  novel, 
but  not  to  know  that  it's  a  silly,  trivial  thing.  It  is 
"learning"  to  have  looked  into  this  or  that  book-suf- 
focated man's  speculation,  but  not  to  know  that  he 
would  be  a  wiser  man  and  have  more  wholesome  blood 
coursing  through  his  brain  if  he  would  take  a  hammer 
or  an  ax  and  get  out  where  he  could  sense  life.  Book- 
sickness  is  the  modern  ailment.  There's  more  wisdom 
in  the  shop  where  men  deal  with  real  materials  and  real 
persons  every  day. 

What  can  you  do  to  help  and  heal  the  world  ? — that 
is  the  educational  test.  If  a  man  can  hold  up  his  own 
end,  he  counts  for  one.  If  he  can  help  ten  or  a  hun- 
dred or  a  thousand  other  men  hold  up  their  ends,  he 
counts  for  more.  He  may  be  quite  rusty  on  many 
things  that  inhabit  the  realm  of  print,  but  he  is  a 
learned  man  just  the  same.  When  a  man  is  master 
of  his  own  sphere,  whatever  it  may  be.  he  has  won  his 
degree — he  has  entered  the  realm  of  wisdom. 


Common  Life  Is  StandMrd 
and  Best 

THE  time  is  here  when  many  youn^^  people  are  leav- 
ing school  and  casting  ahout  for  clues  hy  which 
they  may  settle  the  question  of  their  careers ;  they  want 
to  know  what  they  are  going  to  do,  what  niche  they 
will  fill,  what  name  peo])le  will  know  them  hy  as  to 
trade,  service  and  success.  It  is  a  tr\ing  i)eriod.  It  is 
astounding  sometimes  how  little  can  he  done  to  hel]). 
The  very  anxiety  of  the  search  seems  to  he  a  stage 
through  which  the  developing  life  must  come. 

There  is  prohahly  not  so  much  noiisense  to  l)e  got 
rid  of  hy  the  person  leaving  school  nowadavs,  as  there 
formerly  was.  Years  ago  no  school  was  helicved  to 
have  done  its  duty  which  did  not  send  out  every  pui)il 
filled  with  the  idea  that  some  day  he  (and  now  it  would 
he  also  she)  might  hecomc  President.  As  the  I'nited 
States  has  required  only  "v?!*  Presidents  in  the  1  l"i  years 
of  its  national  existence,  there  h;is  heen  a  rather  alarm- 
ing waste  of  raw  material. 

The  majoritv  ot  ])eopk'  are  hlessed  hy  hi'ing  des- 
tined to  the  very  hest  kind  (^\  lite  there  is,  the  life  n\  ;i 
j)lain  person  ni)on  whom  all  the  lil)t.'rtie-^  di'-^cend  ;in  1 
who  with  others  of  his  kind  con>titute  the  ruling  cla>> 
of  the  world.  Thev  will  not  he  I're-^idi'iit.  unv  (  on- 
gressman,  nor  town  councihiian.  noi-  v\cu  -^ccreiai'y  oi 
their  lodge:  thev  will   just  he  tolks. 

It  is  verv  ea.-^v  to  >tate  thi^  another  way.  ll  ni;i\- 
he  said  that  "they  are  doomed  to  niedii 'Ciil  \ ."  It  ni.i\- 
he  said  that  "they  are  leslin-d  to  Ii\c  the  eMldile^-  life 
of  the  common  man."  It  max  he  -~aii!.  "  I  hrv  are  sen- 
tenced to  a  proletarian  liU'." 

These  phras(.'>  .are  the  ^c\]\u  tli.at  losc  i,.  the  surtacc 
of  tho>e  old  fake  tt'achings  that  siutc--  i-MHsi^icl  in 
getting  the  i)laci'  that  wa^  ;icccssil,k'  i,,  ,inl\    a    tew  in  a 


FORD   IDEALS 


generation.  Failing  that,  then  life  was  "doomed"  to 
be  common.    Utter  rant  and  nonsense ! 

The  very  word  "proletariat"  is  an  insult,  and  if  the 
majority  of  the  people  knew  what  it  meant  they  would 
repudiate  it  and  cast  off  the  propagandists  that  foisted 
the  name  upon  them.  Proletariat  means  that  class  that 
is  good  for  nothing  but  to  raise  children  for  the  state 
— the  lowest,  most  vulgar  and  useless  type  of  human 
beings. 

Yet  whole  bodies  of  well-read  and  highly  useful 
American  citizens  are  induced  to  parade  around  calling 
themselves  the  Proletariat,  and  reading  about  them- 
selves as  Proletarians.  The  man  who  calls  himself  a 
Proletarian,  and  knows  what  the  word  means,  ought 
to  be  ashamed  to  look  his  wife  and  family  in  the  face. 

There  are  no  such  people  as  common  people,  in  the 
sense  that  makes  all  the  others  uncommon.  We  are 
all  common,  or  we  are  all  uncommon,  however  you 
choose  to  look  at  it.  The  king  is  common,  once  you 
get  to  know  him.  The  Presidential  office  is  not  a  com- 
mon office,  but  the  President  is  common.  Ask  him, 
an^  he  will  tell  you  that  he  never  felt  himself  to  be 
anything  but  common.  That  is  to  say,  people  on  the 
same  plane  of  character  are  common  possessors  of 
pretty  much  the  same  qualities;  they  are  citizens  of  the 
same  commonwealth. 

To  say  that  the  king  is  common  and  that  the  Presi- 
dent is  common,  is,  however,  not  quite  the  whole  truth ; 
for  these  statements  are  made  sometimes  to  soothe 
those  who  are  in  rebellion  against  being  themselves, 
llie  major  half  of  the  truth  is  that  no  man  is  com- 
mon ;  individuality,  personality,  the  moral  dignity  of 
a  hutnan  being  as  a  creation  of  the  infinite  mind,  these 
are  the  most  uncommon  things  we  can  think  about.  No 
man  is  common.  But  in  the  compass  of  that  fact,  all 
men  are  common.  They  have  a  common  uncommon- 
ness  by  virtue  of  their  being  human  beings.  Tiieir 
commons  is  the  universe. 

Now,  the  book  that  the  majority  reads  is  said  to  be 
the  best  book.  The  food  that  the  majority  eats  is  held 
to  be  the  most  natural  and  nourishing  food.    The  mode 


COMMON  LIFE  IS  STANDARD  AND  BEST 

of  life  which  the  majority  pursues  is  held  to  be  the 
most  satisfactory  mode.  The  life  that  the  majority 
leads  may  be  called  the  standard,  the  normal  of  life. 
Very  well;  that  standard,  normal  life  is  the  same  life 
we  call  common,  and  which  some  poor  pitiable  people 
regard  as  a  life  of  failure.  Life  itself  is  at  once  the 
common  and  the  uncommon  thing.  The  richest  and 
most  successful  person  is  the  one  who  has  the  most 
life;  and  life  is  within;  it  is  within  and  from  within; 
there  is  no  favoritism,  no  "pull"  at  the  source  of  life. 

Now  that  is  what  is  meant  when  the  false  guides 
say  "the  majority  are  doomed  to  live  the  life  of  the 
masses,"  and  that  also  is  what  is  meant  when  others 
say,  "the  majority  are  going  to  live  the  standard, 
normal  human  life."  That  life  is  common  to  all.  It  is 
the  life  which  everybody  must  live  in  order  to  live  at 
all;  the  life  of  labor  and  food,  of  day  and  night,  of 
home  and  family,  of  body  and  soul — the  same  life 
which  the  President  must  live  in  his  White  House  and 
the  pioneer  in  his  prairie  home.  It  is  the  same  life. 
It  ought  to  be  a  relief  to  know  in  advance  tiiat  it  is  to 
be  ours. 

Life  is  divided  into  two  main  periods — the  ])eriod 
when  we  take  in  and  the  period  when  we  give  out. 
Youth  is  the  receptive  period,  and  althougii  that  period 
does  not  end,  there  conies  to  keep  company  with  it  an 
expressive  period  when  the  individual  makes  his  or 
her  contribution  to  the  general  life,  lie  does  more 
than  that,  however;  in  his  work  he  also  makes  a  con- 
tribution to  himself.  The  sum  of  earth  life  is  the  mak- 
ing of  character.     It  is  inevitable. 

We  make  character  whether  we  want  to  or  not. 
We  make  it  whether  we  are  conscious  of  it  or  not. 
We  make  it  wherever  we  are  and  Ijy  whatever  we  do. 
There  is  no  special  location  or  no  special  occupation 
which  is  more  favorable  to  characler-niaking  tlian  is 
another  location  or  occupation,  'ihere  is  no  station  in 
life  that  is  favorable  to  the  ])ro(luction  of  a  liner  type 
of  character  tlian  is  anv  other  >tation. 

The  more  and  better  cliaractcr  that  is  made,  the 
more  the  outer  world  is  changed  to  cont<i!ni  to  it.     '1  he 


FORu   t3EALS 

money  question,  the  industrial  question,  the  poHtical 
question,  the  social  question — all  these  wait  for  the 
settlement  of  the  character  question. 

The  reason  that  high  office  is  so  powerless  to  hring 
about  reforms,  the  reason  that  titles  and  prerogatives 
are  helpless  in  making  a  clean  sweep  of  injustices,  is 
just  this — no  ofifice  or  authority  get's  any  further  than 
the  character  that  creates  and  fills  it.  Character  is  the 
great  authority.  Given  character,  office  can  be  dis- 
pensed with.  Presidents  and  kings  and  magnates  of 
all  degrees  are  but  the  servants  of  great  characters. 
And  great  characters  are  independent  of  riches  or 
power.  They  arc  rich  and  they  hai'e  power,  and  are 
therefore  invincible  in  whatever  right  things  they  un- 
dertake. 

We  have  rather  successful  inventions,  successful 
businesses,  successful  policies,  but  not  enough  success- 
ful )ncu.  The  success  of  a  man  is  to  become  a  Man  in 
the  character  and  power  that  make  him,  stripped  and 
alone,  a  Alan.  And  this  is  all  within  his  own  control ; 
no  outer  circumstance  can  control  that,  but  he  can  use 
that  to  control  outer  circumstance. 

No  one  should  be  content  with  poverty,  because  if 
it  is  poverty  instead  of  the  clean,  hard  type  of  bareness 
which  constitutes  the  voluntary  "doing  without''  of 
camp  life,  it  is  degrading.  If  a  man  is  poor,  it  should 
only  be  by  his  own  choice.  ]\Iany  men  have  been  jx)or 
by  their  own  choice,  and  therefore  they  escaped  the  de- 
pression of  poverty.  In  the  perfect  society,  most  peo- 
ple will  choose  to  live  on  the  plane  of  the  average  man 
of  today — it  is  more  comfortable,  more  human,  more 
conducive  to  peace.  The  state  to  which  the  majority 
of  society  has  attained  today,  with  such  corrections  of 
the  money  and  governmental  system  as  will  prevent  dis- 
honest tampering,  is,  with  certain  changes,  approxi- 
mately the  state  that  will  prevail  when  society  becomes 
what  it  ought  to  be.  Why  not?  What  better  base  is 
there  for  the  development  of  character? 


416 


Discouraging  People  From 
Thinking 


THERE  is  a  false  theory  which  dates  from  ancient 
times  that  the  way  to  prevent  social  or  political 
disruption  is  to  prevent  the  people  from  thinking. 
Keep  their  minds  off  fundamental  problems  and  every- 
thins^  will  go  along  without  disturbance.  Sometimes 
this  was  done  by  free  circuses  and  free  distribution  of 
food,  as  in  ancient  Rome.  Sometimes  it  was  done  by 
bringing  on  a  war  when  the  pt)pulation  seemed  to  be 
growing  restless.  Sometimes  it  is  achieved  by  bring- 
ing upon  the  stage  a  leader  with  a  Roosevelt  personal- 
ity who  captures  the  imagination  of  the  ])eople  and 
gives  an  appearance  of  rushing  hither  and  thither  on 
an  endless  series  of  hopeful  quests. 

In  these  days,  the  same  doctrine  is  preached  with 
reference  to  unemployment — keep  the  peo])le  emi)l()yed, 
because  if  you  do  not,  they  will  begin  to  think,  and 
tb.inking  is  not  a  good  sign. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  unem])loyment  is  unneces- 
sary, or  would  be  unnecessary  if  our  affairs  were  man- 
aged by  ]:)lain  common  sense,  'i'here  is  always  enough 
to  do  and  always  enough  ])eoi)Ie  willing  to  do  it.  but 
there  is  always  also  that  little-understood  matter  of 
money  which  usurps  so  big  a  position  in  the  (|uestion. 
I'^nemployment  is  ever\bo(lv's  fault,  and  not  the  fault 
of  a  class  only,  as  the  false  teaching  of  the  day  asserts. 
The  cla-'S  propaganda  is  merely  a  postponement  of  the 
sense  of  general  responsibility  which  all  the  people  must 
feel  before  substantial  and  enduring  progress  can  be 
made. 

As  to  the  dangers  ol  the  people  thinking,  llu-re  are 
several  ])oints  to  ob'-erve.  Thought,  ni  conr>e,  i^  the 
most  ])owerful  dynamite  in  the  world.  Thought  has 
achiexc'd  whati-xcr  we  >ee.  Wi^on-j  tlion-'ln  lia-  acliirvcd 


FORD   IDEALS 


all  the  wrong  we  see.    It  is  not  thought  that  is  danger- 
ous, but  its  temper  and  direction. 

It  is  perhaps  true  that  one  of  the  root  causes  of  our 
troubles  today  is  that  there  is  too  little  public  thought. 
More  people  are  reading  than  ever  before — as  witness 
the  enormous  editions  of  incendiary  literature  which 
the  radical  organizations  circulate — but  what  they  read 
stirs  up  something  besides  thought.  It  stirs  up  passion, 
resentment,  hatred,  the  latent  destructive  faculties,  and 
puts  the  man  into  fierce  vibration,  but  this  is  not  stir- 
ring up  thought.  Thought  has  quite  another  tone  and 
result. 

What  little  thought  may  be  mixed  in  these  manifes- 
tations of  the  destructive  passions  is  thereby  contamin- 
ated, prostituted  and  neutralized.  Men  cannot  think 
under  such  conditions.  The  real  problem  is  not  how  to 
prevent  the  people  thinking  and  asking  questions,  but 
how  to  make  it  possible  for  them  to  think  under  right 
conditions. 

During  the  period  of  stress  and  unemployment 
which  is  now  happily  past,  many  people  did  a  great 
deal  of  so-called  thinking.  That  is,  they  brooded  and 
they  made  vows  and  they  gave  vent  to  great  denuncia- 
tions. It  was  not  purposeful  thinking.  How  could  it  be? 
When  a  man  is  in  a  corner,  how  can  he  be  expected  to 
be  philosophical?  Unless,  of  course,  he  is  an  extraor- 
dinary man;  and  if  he  were  that,  the  chances  are  he 
w^ould  not  be  in  a  corner. 

Our  best  social  thinking  is  not  done  in  periods  of 
stress  and  enforced  idleness.  Indeed,  you  can  measure 
the  difference  between  real  thinking  and  brooding,  by 
measuring  the  difference  between  leisure  and  idleness. 
Leisure  is  necessary  to  thought,  but  idleness  seems  to 
be  the  enemy  of  thought.  Leisure  is -a  breathing 
period  in  a  situation  in  which  the  man  feels  secure ; 
idleness  is  a  brooding  period  in  a  situation  in  which  the 
bottom  has  apparently  dropped  out  of  the  man's  secur- 
ity. If  the  lay-off'  last  winter  could  have  been  em- 
])loyed  as  leisure,  if  men  had  been  so  well  provided  for 
that  they  could  have  looked  upon  the  lay-off  as  a  wel- 
come vacation,  the  mental  results  would  have  been 
beneficial  to  (he  country.    As  it  was,  the  idleness  was 

418 


DISCOURAGING   PEOPLE  FROM   THINKING 

not  leisure,  and  the  psychological  recovery  is  just  as 
necessary  as  the  economic  recovery. 

The  farmer  is  a  good  illustration  of  this.  No  one 
can  deny  that  the  farmer  has  heen  very  hard  hit  and 
that  his  problem  is  the  problem  of  every  one  of  us. 
Until  we  regard  the  farmer's  problem  as  our  own,  we 
are  neglecting  a  bulwark  of  our  economic  security 
and  our  social  solidarity.  We  hear  in  other  countries 
of  "Soldiers'  and  Workmen's  Committees";  what  we 
need  in  this  country  is  a  better  understanding  and  a 
closer  relation  between  workmen  and   farmers. 

During  the  s-iack  season  of  the  winter,  when  the 
farmer  himself  was  shut  out  of  his  fields  by  win- 
ter, he  did  a  great  deal  of  brooding.  He  had  enough 
to  brood  about,  too.  And  he  expressed  himself  quite 
fully.  His  leisure  was  robbed  of  its  value  l)ccause  of 
the  change  that  had  come  in  his  economic  standing, 
and  his  thoughts  veered  likewise.  He  said,  among 
other  things,  that  he  would  not  raise  a  bushel  more 
grain  this  year  than  he  needed  for  himself  and  family! 
He  was  through  being  the  football  of  the  profiteers! 
He  would  show  them  that  they  could  not  do  as  they 
liked   with  him ! 

It  was  a  serious  threat.  Aside  from  the  economic 
phase  of  it,  there  was  something  ominous  in  the 
priests  of  the  soil  threatening  to  prevent  the  forces  of 
nature  doing  their  seasonal  work. 

But  what  has  occurred?  The  sun  of  spring  l)egan 
to  shine  and  the  spring  rains  came  down,  and  the  fann- 
er went  forth  to  his  fields.  He  began  to  work.  Work 
began  to  heal  him.  It  is  safe  to  guess  that  what  the 
farmers  think  by  the  end  of  the  season,  by  the  time  of 
harvest,  will  be  more  constructive  than  what  they 
thought  during  the  winter. 

If  the  people  only  would  think,  and  if  coivlitions 
could  be  maintained  which  would  enable  them  to  think 
constructively,  few  problems  would  remain  un-^(*lve(l. 
Pros])erity  is  the  1)est  time  to  think,  for  then  >-ou  liave 
the  elements  which  arc  (lesira])lc  to  be  maintained. 
and  which  the  thoughtlessness  of  the  i)eople  is  some- 
times a  very  large  element  in  deslro\ing. 

419 


FORD  idf;als 

Why  is  it  that  public  thinking,  under  conditions  of 
prosperity,  is  more  valuable  to  the  public  interest  than 
the  so-called  thinking  which  is  done  under  economic 

stress  ? 

The  answer  is  clear.  First,  the  man  is  free  to 
think  without  bias  or  resentment.  There  is  no  sense  of 
personal  wrong  resting  upon  him,  no  feeling  of  bitter- 
ness twisting  all  his  views  into  one  channel.  Second, 
the  elements  which  are  fundamental  are  present  be- 
fore him — the  fact  of  work  and  its  necessity ;  the  fact 
of  home  and  its  security ;  the  fact  of  society  and  the 
great  dependence  it  has  on  ordered  industry.  Third,  a 
general  view  into  all  grades  of  life  which  ease  of  mind 
permits  him  and  which  stress  of  mind  often  shuts  out ; 
he  can  consider  his  children  and  their  education ;  mor- 
als and  their  sanction ;  literature,  science,  politics — all 
the  things  which  are  shut  out  and  undervalued  when 
mental  stress  forces  the  mind  into  merely  class  ques- 
tions. 

Now.  with  none  of  these  things  present,  but  with 
himself  forced  down  to  the  animal  plane  of  finding 
.something  to  eat,  plainly  the  man  is  not  in  a  position  to 
do  all-round  thinking.  And  it  is  all-round  thinking  that 
is  going  to  save  the  people  from  lopsided  mistakes.  Our 
education  cannot  be  too  general,  our  acquaintance  with 
the  grades  of  life  too  wide,  for  in  the  breadth  of  our 
view  comes  the  correction  f)f  our  tendencies  to  narrow- 
ness. 

Therefore,  the  agitators  of  destruction  know  ex- 
actly what  they  are  doing  when  they  choose  the  times 
of  depression  for  their  ]:)ropaganda.  Would  that  the 
children  of  light  were  as  wise  to  choose  the  times  of 
prosperity  for  the  cultivation  of  sound,  unbiased  and 
constructive  thinkintj^  upon  the  matters  jiertaining  to 
our  common  life ! 

.Anyone  who  preaches  that  the  ])e()jile  must  l)e  ]ire- 
vented  from  thinking  is  as  dangerous  to  society  as  are 
those  who  spend  immeasurable  zeal  in  their  efforts  to 
make  society  think  wrongly.  It  is  when  all  the  people 
think,  normallv  and  wbolcsomelv,  that  tlie  world  will 
l)Ccomc  what   it  mi<j^ht  he. 

420 


Getting  Rid  of  Fear  and  Failure 


THE  only  communism  that  ever  helped  men,  and 
that  ever  will  help  men,  is  the  communism  of 
thought  and  understanding.  Our  modern  life  has 
taken  a  direction  which  makes  it  necessary  for  people 
to  hecome  acquainted  all  over  again.  We  form  our 
conclusions  of  persons  and  classes  apart  from  them 
and,  as  a  result,  the  world  is  dealing  with  dummy  fig- 
ures which  never  existed,  and  with  types  of  men  who 
are  few  and  imimportant. 

There  was  a  time  when  peo])le  knew  one  another 
more  intimately  than  they  do  now.  and  that  lime  is 
still  present  in  other  countries.  People  knew  one  an- 
other in  America  when  they  were  more  dependent  on 
one  another.  When  neighborliness  consisted  in  a  com- 
munity of  understanding,  sympathy  and  helpfulness, 
when  neighborliness  was  a  duty  sucii  as  "keeping  up 
an  appearance"  is  now  regarded,  there  was  a  wide- 
spread social  knowledge,  gained  by  contact,  which  is 
now  only  imperfectly  gained   from  other  sources. 

Then  the  industrial  era  opened ;  the  amount  of 
money  handled  by  each  family  increased ;  the  things 
that  people  used  to  do  for  one  another,  were  hired 
done,  or  done  within  the  family;  in  a  word,  people 
became  more  independent  of  one  another,  and  thus 
drifted  apart.  Neighborhoods,  on  the  surface  at  least, 
are  not  what  our  forbears  remembered  them  to  be,  nor 
even  what  they  were  in  our  youthful  years.  Indeed, 
there  are  no  "neighborhoods"  in  the  larger  cities  ;  there 
are  just  "localities." 

Perhaps  it  is  not  as  bad  as  this;  it  onlv  apjx'ar^  a> 
bad.  i'>om  time  to  time  there  conv's  news  of  n  re- 
vival of  the  old  nci<,dib()rly  spirit.  Troul)k'  comes  lo 
a  family  that  has  lately  moved  in  and  whom  no  one 
knows,  and  j)resently  the  neighborhood  v|)irit -sleep- 
ing, but  ap])arently  not  dead — di-^closes  itself  again  in 
dio<e  old  and  homely  acts  which,  while  thev  often  have 

421 


FORD    IDEALS 


small  power  to  heal  the  circumstance,  have  neverthe- 
less a  very  potent  power  to  soothe  sore  hearts. 

Try  as  we  may  to  relegate  all  this  to  the  realm  of 
useless  sentimentality,  the  fact  remains  that  there  is 
mysterious  power  in  just  the  compassion  of  men  for 
one  another  in  their  difficulties.  There  is  not  enough 
of  it,  and  the  reason  is  that  we  have  made  ourselves 
believe  that  material  sufficiency  makes  us  independent 
of  all  men.  Not  so.  As  a  matter  of_  fact,  no  one  is  so 
constantly  dependent  on  other  men  as  he  whose  inter- 
ests and  responsibilities  are  great. 

But  if  experience  teaches  us  anything  it  is  this,  that 
there  is  no  readjustment  without  its  compensation.  The 
only  constant  and  reliable  fact  is  change.  Life  is  a 
river  whose  sources  are  hidden,  whose  ultimate  sea  is 
not  in  view,  and  no  work  of  man  is  quite  so  vain  as 
that  which  seeks  to  fix  life  in  a  certain  form  for  all 
the  future.  Create  the  form  you  dote  on ;  establish  it 
by  revolution  or  the  i)eople's  suffrage ;  yet  as  soon  as 
it  is  established,  the  law  of  change  begins  to  eat  it 
away,  and  in  a  generation  men  reared  under  your  form 
will  be  sadly  saving,  "Things  are  not  what  they  used 
to  be." 

And  if  we  have  been  dislodged  out  of  our  reliance 
on  the  neighborhood,  it  has  all  been  a  profitable  thing ; 
by  it  we  have  been  thrown  back  into  more  reliance 
upon  ourselves. 

After  all,  the  successful  man  is  the  man  who  has 
no  fear  of  himself.  The  true  man  of  the  world  is  the 
man  who  feels  that  as  long  as  the  earth  turns  round 
and  the  seasons  come  he  is  in  his  proper  home,  with 
all  needful  things  awaiting  his  command. 

If  there  is  one  element  of  darkness  which  one 
would  banish  from  the  earth  sooner  than  any  other,  it 
is  this  element  of  fear.  F"ear  is  the  offspring  of  a  reli- 
ance ])laced  on  something  outside — on  a  foreman's 
good  will,  perhaps,  on  a  shop's  prosperity,  on  a  mar- 
ket's steadiness.  That  is  just  another  way  of  saying 
tliat  fear  is  the  ]xirtion  of  the  man  who  acknowledges 
his  career  to  be  in  the  keeping  of  earthly  circumstance. 
Fear  is  the  result  of  the  1)ody  assuming  ascendancy 
over  the  soul.     It  is  the  fruit  of   the  mind  that  ac- 

422 


GETTING   RID  OF   FKAR   AND   FAILURE 

knowledges  itself  to  be  a  bond-slave.  Many  men  fear 
every  undertaking,  and  when  you  analyze  the  sources 
of  their  fear  you  will  find  that  it  is  nothing  but  the 
memory  of  their  own  previ\)us  failures.  Men  are  like 
colts;  if  they  are  permitted  to  fail  too  often,  it  becomes 
a  habit  Avith  them.  Colts,  however,  fail  because  they 
are  overloaded  ;  men,  because  they  do  not  "adjust  their 
efforts  to  obstacles" — which  was  Napoleon's  rule. 

This  habit  of  failure  is  i)urely  mental  and  is  the 
mother  of  fear,  and  like  any  other  bad  habit,  it  carries 
a  great  deal  of  blameworthiness  with  it.  Men  fail — 
everybody  fails — experiment  and  the  getting  of  expert- 
ness  can  be  achieved  by  no  other  means  than  by  items 
of  failure ;  but  to  let  failure  in  details  or  in  experiment 
fix  the  habit  and  the  fear  of  failure  on  the  mind  is  not 
only  tragic  l)Ut  positively  sinful. 

This  habit  gets  itself  fixed  on  men  because  they 
lack  vision;  that  is,  they  start  out  to  do  something  that 
reaches  from  A  to  Z  of  a  certain  matter.  Now.  at  A 
they  fail,  at  B  they  stumble,  and  at  C  they  meet  what 
seems  to  be  an  insuperable  difficulty,  and  then  they 
throw  the  whole  task  down — beaten  !  They  have  not 
even  given  themselves  a  chance  to  fail ;  they  have  not 
given  their  vision  a  chance  to  be  proved  or  disproved; 
they  have  simply  been  beaten  by  the  natural  difficulties 
that  attend  every  kind  of  eft'ort. 

It  is  a  very  serious  thought  that  more  men  are 
beaten  than  fail.  It  was  not  wisdom  they  needed,  nor 
money,  nor  brilliance,  nor  ''pull,"  ])ut  just  plain  gristle, 
plain  bone.  This  rude,  simple,  primitive  ]X)wer  which 
we  call  "stick-to-it-ivene>s"  is  the  uncrowned  king  of 
the  world  of  endeavor. 

People  are  utterly  wrong  in  their  slant  upon  things. 
They  .see  the  successes  that  men  lia\e  made  and  some- 
how they  apj)ear  to  be  easy.  P)Ul  tliat  is  a  world  away 
from  the  "fad.  It  is  a  failure  that  is  easy.  Success 
is  always  hard.  .\  man  can  fail  in  ea-^e  ;  he  can  suc- 
ceed onl\-  by  |)aying  all  tliat  he  is  and  has.  It  is  this 
whi<;h  makes  success  so  i)itial)1e  a  thing  i  l'  it  he  in  lines 
that  are  not  useful  and  uplit'ling  to  llie  ])e(ip!e. 

Men  ought  to  learn  not  to  keep  putting  their  trust 

4. 'J 


FORD   IDEALS 


into  what  they  deem  untrustworthy.  If  a  man  is  in 
constant  fear  of  the  industrial  situation  he  ought  to 
change  his  Hfe  so  as  not  to  be  dependent  on  it.  There 
is  always  the  land,  and  fewer  people  on  the  land  now 
than  there  ever  was  before. 

If  a  man  lives  in  fear  of  an  employer's  favor 
changing  toward  him,  he  ought  to  extricate  himself 
from  dependence  on  any  employer.  He  can  become 
his  own  boss.  It  may  be  that  he  will  be  a  poorer  boss 
than  the  one  he  leaves,  and  that  his  returns  will  be 
much  less,  but  at  least  he  will  have  rid  himself  of 
the  shadow  of  his  pet. fear,  and  that  is  worth  a  great 
deal  in  money  and  position. 

Better  still,  is  for  the  man  to  come  up  through  him- 
self and  exceed  himself  by  getting  rid  of  his  fears  in 
the  midst  of  the  circumstances  where  his  daily  lot  is 
cast.  Become  a  freeman  in  the  place  where  you  first 
surrendered  your  freedom.  Win  your  battle  where 
you  lost  it.  And  you  will  come  to  see  that,  although 
there  was  much  outside  of  you  that  was  not  just  right, 
there  was  more  inside  of  you  that  was  wrong.  Thus 
you  will  learn  that  the  wrong  inside  of  you  spoils  even 
the  right  that  is  outside  of  you. 

A  man  is  still  the  superior  being  of  the  earth. 
Whatever  happens,  he  is  still  a  man.  It  may  rain  to- 
morrow— he  is  still  a  man.  Business  may  slacken  to- 
morrow— he  is  still  a  man.  He  goes  through  the 
changes  of  circumstances,  as  he  goes  through  the 
variations  of  the  temperature — still  a  man.  If  he  can 
only  get  this  thought  reborn  in  him,  it  opens  new  wells 
of  water  and  new  mines  of  wealth  in  his  own  being. 
There  is  no  security  outside  of  himself.  There  is  no 
wealth  outside  of  himself.  The  elimination  of  fear  is 
the  l)ringing  in  of  security  and  supply. 


424 


The  Exodus  From  the  Cities 


IT  IS  human  nature  to  want  to  sit  down  contented, 
to  get  everything  so  nicely  arranged  that  it  will  go 
without  tending;  but  everyone  knows  that  that  is  not 
the  way  life  goes.  There  is  a  difference  of  tempo,  a 
difference  of  purpose,  a  difference  of  method  between 
human  nature  and  life.  Human  nature  would  seem 
to  be  the  sleepy  pupil,  and  the  forces  of  life  the  stern 
teacher  who  prods  the  pupil  and  keeps  him  doing  what 
he  would  rather  not  do.  Which,  of  course,  is  the  high- 
est education,  the  best  discipline — the  power  to  do 
what  we  would  rather  not  do. 

Every  now  and  again  something  comes  along  to  jar 
us  loose,  and  start  us  going  again.  The  conditions  we 
thought  were  settled  turn  out  not  to  be  settled  at  all. 
The  method  we  thought  was  established  turns  out  to 
be  the  most  tem.porary  of  expedients.  Life  steps  in 
and  orders  us  to  move  on. 

The  thermometer  is  one  of  the  staffs  of  authority 
which  life  wields  over  us.  You  will  find  within  a  cer- 
tain belt  around  the  world  all  the  progress  that  is  con- 
tained within  the  world,  and  the  secret  of  that  belt's 
prosperity,  progress,  morality  and  superiority  is  re- 
vealed to  us  by  the  thermometer.  The  thermometer  is 
mightier  than  the  sword.  Those  races  whom  destiny 
has  not  set  within  that  earth-belt  need  not  be  fought 
with  swords  ;  the  thermometer  fights  them  and  keeps 
them  in  their  place.  The  People  of  the  Four  Seasons 
are  four  times  set  u])on  every  year  by  the  forces  of 
nature;  they  have  the  stenmcss  of  winter,  the  j^romise 
of  spring,  the  rich  fruitfulness  of  sutnmer  and  the 
beauty  of  autumn  in  their  make-up.  I'hcv  are  not 
suffered  to  loll  upon  the  earth  as  others  are.  The  gad 
of  destiny  is  always  whisking  their  flanks. 

Take  the  gentler  u])set  which  the  coming  of  the 
present  season  lirings  to  our  ways  of  thinking.  "Sjiring 
fever."  so-called,  and  summer  disccMitent  are  not  mere 

425 


FOHD    IDEALS 


individual  restlessnesses,  they  are  comparable  to  the 
tremor  which  sometimes  runs  through  the  earth ;  they 
indicate  that  new  settlements,  new  bases  are  being 
sought  for.  What  we  overlook  too  often  is  the  fact 
that  our  desires  are  our  prophets,  foretelling  what  is 
to  be.  Millions  of  people  at  this  season  of  the  year 
are  becoming  sensible,  often  in  a  dull,  dumb,  uncon- 
scious way,  of  the  difference  between  the  way  we  have 
organized  our  life  and  the  way  in  which  nature  has 
organized  the  world. 

People  go  out  under  the  trees  and  beside  broad 
waters ;  they  endure,  dust  and  heat  and  crowding  and 
the  plaints  of  children,  to  seek  a  place  where  they  may 
lie  on  a  shaded  hill  and  idly  watch  the  cloud-fleets  sail 
the  sky.  They  get  a  new  sense  of  the  expanse  and 
freedom  of  the  world.  Their  minds  range  where  there 
are  no  walls,  no  bound.s,  no  close  schedule  of  limita- 
tions. 

Say  what  you  will,  this  contact  with  nature,  though 
it  be  but  for  a  day,  is  more  than  a  pleasure,  more  than 
a  vacation  from  work ;  it  is  a  jolt.  People  are  made 
sensible  of  a  jar  between  what  is  and  what  might  be. 
Reflective  peoj)le  do  not  even  enjoy  the  time  of  their 
vacation  as  they  ought  to,  because  it  comes  so  clear  to 
their  minds  that  something  is  wrong.  They  may  be 
inclined  to  think  that  it  is  merely  their  freedom  from 
their  usual  work  that  causes  this  uneasiness,  their  free- 
dom to  think  once  more — but  that  is  not  always  the 
case.  The  Voice  of  Nature  is  saying  to  them.  "Up, 
for  this  is  not  your  rest,  you  must  march  on!" 

It  is  not  that  the  city  is  hot ;  the  country  is  hot  too. 
It  is  not  that  the  city  means  daily  toil ;  there  is  daily 
toil  in  the  country  too.  But  somehow,  at  this  season 
of  the  year,  when  the  men  of  the  cities  come  into  the 
temples  of  the  groves,  and  see  miles  of  meadows  and 
the  sweep  of  rivers,  they  are  torn  between  two  feelings 
— first,  that  the  cities  have  their  disadvantages;  second.  . 
that  the  cities  have  their  advantages  too. 

One  tiling  you  may  set  down  as  true  is  that  the 
cities  arc  doomed.  Xot  immediately,  but  perhaps  much 
sooner  than  even  the  most  adventurous  are  willing  to 
bc'ievc.     There  is  no  city  now  existing  that  would  be 

426 


THE   EXODUS   FROM    THE   CITIES 

rebuilt  as  it  is,  if  it  were  destroyed;  which  fact  is  in 
itself  a  confession  of  our  real  estimate  of  our  cities. 

There  is  a  strange  new  movement  afoot,  which  is 
well  to  attend  a  little.  Never  was  there  such  an  influx 
of  people  from  the  country  into  the  cities ;  never  was 
there  such  an  exodus  of  people  from  the  cities  into 
the  country.  The  two  go  on  together.  The  i)eople 
who  don't  know  the  cities  are  flocking  in,  as  many  as 
can.  The  people  who  do  know  the  cities  are  flocking 
out,  as  many  as  can. 

Now  it  means  this :  the  city  has  had  a  part  to  play 
in  the  civilization  of  the  world,  and  that  part  is  now 
being  played  with  accelerated  speed.  All  our  cities 
have  changed  their  inhabitants  the  last  few  years. 
More  and  more  people  have  been  passed  through  them 
to  gain  what  they  have  to  give.  When  the  full  part 
is  played,  and  it  is  being  played  out  fast,  cities  will  pass 
off  the  stage.     To  this  many  lines  of  indication  agree. 

So,  the  unrest  we  are  beginning  to  feel,  and  which 
we  increasingly  feel  at  this  season,  is  prophetic.  Men 
are  going  to  live  nearer  the  source  of  things,  not  walled 
away  like  exiles  from  the  very  sun  l)y  which  they  live, 
and  from  the  very  soil  that  gives  them  bread. 

The  city  had  a  place  to  fdl,  a  work  to  do.  Doubt- 
less the  country  places  would  not  have  approximated 
their  present  livableness  had  it  not  been  for  the  cities. 
By  crowding  together,  men  have  learned  .^ome  secrets. 
They  would  never  have  learned  tliem  alone  in  country 
life.  Why,  even  the  fresh  air  method  of  treating 
tuberculcjsis  is  a  city  discovery.  Sanitation,  ligliting, 
social  organization,  all  these  are  products  of  men's 
experience  witli  each  other  in  the  city. 

That  is  to  say.  practically  all  the  imnrcnements  that 
have  been  made  in  countr\-  life  have  originated  in  the 
city  and  have  passed  on  to  bless  the  countrv.  In  that 
we  may  see  the  city's  place  in  the  world — it  was  a 
gathering  place  in  whicli  men  might  work  out  those 
necessary  devices  of  successful  living  which,  when 
transplanted  into  the  country,  would  make  the  desert 
blossom  as  the  rose  and.  what  is  better,  make  the  gr.ay 
waste  of  life  a  colorful  thing. 

People  who  are  getting  out  oi   the  citie>  now  are 

427 


FORD   IDEALS 

taking  the  best  of  the  cities  with  them — those  discover- 
ies and  inventions  which  make  life  safe  and  pleasant, 
and  which  unburden  men  of  loads  that  are  better  borne 
by  iron  and  steel. 

It  is  not  the  advantages  of  cities  that  are  doomed, 
but  the  disadvantages — the  congestion,  the  inequality 
which  reigns  even  in  the  matter  of  air  and  sunlight  and 
ground  space.  And  yet,  the  world  has  known  for 
many  centuries  that  air  and  sunlight  and  ground  space 
were  not  of  4:hemselves  the  infallible  sources  of  happi- 
ness and  success,  for  without  certain  improvements 
even  country  life  becomes  an  insupportable  drudgery 
and  an  unrelieved  loneliness.  The  advantages  of  the 
country  are  natural;  the  advantages  of  the  city  are 
human ;  when  both  are  fused,  as  they  are  being  fused, 
the  cities  lose  in  large  degree  their  justification  for 
existence.  When  they  bring  their  best  to  the  country, 
their  work  is  done. 

Cities,  in  the  sense  of  central  assembling  places  for 
manufacture  and  commerce,  may  continue  t.o  exist ; 
but  people  will  live  outside  them.  Wherever  people 
can  carry  with  them  the  advantages  which  the  city  has 
produced,  they  move  out  of  the  city.  And  that  is  the 
natural,  necessary  movement ;  for  you  cannot  carry  the 
country  into  the  city,  it  cannot  be  done ;  or  if  it  could 
be  done,  the  city  would  be  destroyed  in  the  process. 
But  you  can  carry  the  city  into  the  country,  without 
destroying  the  country,  but  even  improving  it. 

So  while  it  is  clear  that  cities  are  to  pass,  let  us  not 
regard  them  as  a  sad  blunder ;  they  were  a  school  for 
the  race.  They  taught  us  something.  They  filled  their 
place  and  did  their  work  of  education.  But  an  end 
comes  to  every  phase  of  education,  and  it  seems  clear 
that  an  end  is  coming  to  this  also. 


428 


Use  Is  Better  Than  Economy 


IT  IS  rather  a  strange  arrangement  of  nature  that 
only  the  most  precious  values  can  be  wasted.  You 
can  waste  time,  you  can  waste  labor,  you  can  waste 
material — and  that  is  about  all.  You  cannot  waste 
money.  You  can  misuse  money,  but  you  cannot  waste 
it;  it  is  still  somewhere.  You  can  waste  your  own 
opportunity  to  use  it  for  benefit,  but  that  is  all.  Which 
would  seem  to  put  money  in  at  least  the  second  class. 

Time,  energy  and  material  are  worth  more  than 
money,  because  they  cannot  be  purchased  by  money. 
Not  one  hour  of  yesterday,  nor  one  hour  of  today  can 
be  bought  back.  Not  one  ounce  of  energy  can  be 
bought  back.  Material  wasted,,  is  wasted  beyond  re- 
covery. These  things  are  in  the  front  rank  of  values. 
They  are  the  precious  elements  ^^ut  of  which  all  wealth 
is  made. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  these  precious  values  are 
not  of  human  creation.  We  have  done  a  great  deal 
with  our  human  intelligence  and  energy,  we  have  ac- 
complished much  by  the  mani])ulation  of  natural  mate- 
rial and  forces,  but  the  severely  modifying  fact  remains 
that  ourselves  and  all  we  have  worked  with,  and  the 
very  intelligence  we  have  worked  by,  were  not  our  own 
creation.  So,  while  mankind  may  he.  ])leased,  and  even 
thankful,  jt  ill  becomes  it  to  be  boastful. 

All  our  values  were  given  us.  Mind-values,  power- 
values,  material-values  were  all  here.  Antl  we.  the 
human  race,  have  simply  ])een  cutting  our  eye-teeth  on 
some  of  the  elementary  jirohlems.  Tiie  tree  makes 
apples,  mankind  makes  engines  and  philosophies — the 
tree  cannot  boast  itself  to  be  very  original  and  power- 
ful;  it  does  what  it  was  given  power  to  do. 

Hut  mankind  always  has  ])romise  of  being  ])er- 
mitted  to  do  still  greater  things.  If  irees  bore  different; 
and  finer  apples  every  succeeding  year,  we  sliould  sa\-. 
"\\'e]I.   there    is   progress   in    [he   ap])li'   kingdom,   and 


FORD   IDEALS 


some  day  those  apple  trees  are  going  to  develop  into 
beings  of  wonderful  powers."  But  we  don't  see  that. 
We  see,  however,  mankind  putting  out  different  and 
better  fruits  age  by  age,  and  even  helping  the  tree 
bear  better  apples,  and  the  bush  better  berries ;  and 
therefore  we  say,  "Well,  there  will  come  a  time  when 
this  wonderfully  endowed  and  protected  race  of  beings 
will  work  in  some  finer  material  than  steel,  and  by 
some  finer  force  than  electricity  or  gasoline  explosions. 
Its  present  progress  has  every  sign  of  being  only 
preparation." 

The  waste  which  we  practice  upon  the  original 
store  of  wealth  is  always  repairing  itself.  That  is  to 
say,  the  time  we  waste  is  wasted  for  us,  not  for  Time 
— somewhere  the  unused  hours  and  days  return  to 
original  source  where  there  are  neither  days  nor  hours, 
nor  yet  Time,  but  endless  duration.  Hours  and  days 
are  doled  out  to  us  as  small  coin  to  see  how  we  will 
use  them. 

It  is  the  same  everywhere.  W'asted  material  is  re- 
placed ;  the  earth  never  ceases  making  what  we  need 
and  is  prepared  to  fill  future  needs  of  which  we  have 
not  now  the  slightest  fore-knowledge.  If  men  waste 
energy,  it  is  lost  to  them  as  individuals — the  great 
reservoir  of  energy  on  which  all  life  draws  is  not 
exhausted. 

Therefore  the  great  word  of  life  is  Use. 

Some  would  say  Economy.  Not  so.  The  word 
economy  represents  a  half -idea  born  of  fear.  Its  his- 
tory is  something  like  this :  the  great  and  tragic  fact 
of  waste  is  brought  home  to  the  mind  by  some  circum- 
stance, usually  of  a  most  materialistic  kind  ;  or  there 
comes  a  violent  reaction  against  .  extravagance — for 
even  nature  reliels  against  our  unwise  courses  (which 
is  the  reason  why  so  many  people  break  down  from 
"overwork.''  which  is  not  overwork  at  all)  ;  and  as  a 
sudden  revulsion  against  it  all.  the  mind  catches  hold 
of  the  idea  of  "economy."  It  flies  from  a  greater  evil 
to  a  lesser  one  :  it  does  not  make  the  full  journey  from 
error  to  truth. 

Economy  is  the  rule  of  half-alive  minds.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  lietter  than   waste,  neither 


430 


USE    IS    BKTTER    THAN     ECOXOMY 

can  there  be  any  doubt  that  it  is  not  as  good  as  Use. 

People  who  pride  themselves  on  their  economy 
sometimes  bristle  when  it  is  attacked,  as  if  one  of  the 
virtues  had  been  denounced.  It  is  principally  in  the 
interests  of  the  economizers  that  this  attitude  is  taken. 
For  if  there  is  anything  more  pitiable  on  earth  than  a 
poor,  pinched  mind  spending  the  rich  days  and  months 
])inching  at  a  few  jMCces  of  metal,  or  paring  the  outer 
necessities  of  life  to  the  very  quick — if  there  is  any- 
thing more  pitiable,  where  is  it? 

Obviously,  a  practice  that  so  pinches  the  mind  is  a 
wrong  one.  We  all  know  economical  people  who  seem 
to  be  niggardly  even  about  the  amount  of  air  they 
breathe  and  the  amount  of  ap])reciation  they  will  allow 
themselves  to  give  anything.     They  are  all   shriveled 

"P- 

Indeed,  economy  is  waste:  it  is  waste  of  the  juices 

of  life,  the  sa])  of  living.  For  there  are  two  kinds  of 
waste :  that  of  the  prodigal  who  throws  his  sul)stance 
away  in  riotous  living,  and  that  of  the  sluggard  who 
allows  his  substance  to  rot  from  non-use.  In  the 
precious  things  of  life  the  strict  economizer  is  in  dan- 
ger of  being  classed  with  the  sluggard. 

The  beauty  of  the  principle  of  Use  is  that  it  obtains 
all  the  advantages  of  economy  and  at  the  same  time 
gives  healthy  expression  to  all  the  instincts  of  which 
wastefulness  is  the  diseased  symptom.  Most  ])eople's 
extravagance  is  a  reaction  from  severe  suppression  of 
expenditure.  Most  peo])le's  economv  is  a  reaction 
from  extravagance. 

Under  the  princijile  of  L'se  the  expansi\c  experience 
of  expenditure  is  obtained,  as  well  as  the  sell-control 
and  economic  discipline  of  ■'economizing.'' 

Everything  was  given  us  to  use.  Tliere  is  no  evil 
from  which  we  suiTer  that  did  not  come  about  through 
misuse.  There  is  no  function  which  hinnan  beings  can 
fuHill  that  is  not  good.  lUit  we  have  all  about  us  the 
spectacle  of  whole  nations  having  [n  make  laws  against 
things,  not  bad  fundrunentallv.  hut  bad  in  their  mis- 
use. 1'he  worst  possiI)Ie  sin  we  can  commit  against  the 
things  of  our  common  life  is  to  misu'-e  them.  "Misuse"' 
is  tlie  wider  term.    We  like  to  sav  '■wa^te."  1)ut  waste  is 


FORD    IDEALS 

only  one  phase  of  misuse.  All  waste  is  misuse;  all 
misuse  is  waste. 

It  is  possible  even  to  overemphasize  the  savings 
habit.  It  is  proper  and  desirable  that  everyone  have  a 
margin;  it  is  really  wasteful  not  to  have  one,  if  you 
can  have  one.     But  it  can  be  overdone. 

We  teach  children  to  save  their  money.  As  an  at- 
tempt to  counteract  thoughtless  and  selfish  expenditure, 
it  has  its  value ;  but  it  is  not  positive ;  it  doesn't  lead  the 
child  out  into  safe  and  useful  avenues  of  self-expression 
or  self-expenditure. 

To  teach  a  child  to  invest  is  better.  Most  men  are 
saving  a  few  dollars  who,  if  they  would  invest  those  few 
dollars,  first  in  themselves,  and  then  in  some  useful 
work,  would  find  it  easier  to  save  because  they  would 
have  more  to  save. 

Young  men  ought  to  be  investing  instead  of  sav- 
ing. They  ought  to  be  investing  in  themselves  to  in- 
crease their  creative  value ;  after  they  have  brought 
themselves  to  their  peak  of  usefulness,  then  will  be 
time  enough  to  think  of  laying  aside,  as  a  fixed  policy, 
a  certain  substantial  share  of  income. 

You  are  not  "saving"  when  you  are  preventing  your- 
self from  becoming  more  productive.  You  are  really 
taking  out  of  your  ultimate  capital ;  you  are  reducing 
yourself  in  value  as  one  of  nature's  investments. 

The  principle  of  Use  is  the  main  guide-post.  Use  is 
positive,  active,  life-giving.  Use  is  alive.  Use  adds 
to  the  sum  of  good.  Start  out  on  that  principle.  You 
will  have  just  as  much  materially,  but  you  will  have  a 
great  deal  more  mentally  and  spiritually.  Investment  is 
the  prerequisite  of  returns.  Investment  is  in  the  old- 
fashioned  term,  "putting  out  to  use." 


432 


Interest  Robbery  in  Bonus  Loan 


THE  word  "bonus"  is  frequently  heard  these  days  in 
connection  with  the  men  who  fought  for  our 
country  in  the  Great  War.  And  wherever  it  is  heard, 
there  will  be  found  two  opinions  upon  it.  Perhaps 
everybody,  those  who  are  for  it  and  those  who  are 
against  it,  feels  that  at  best  it  is  a  makeshift,  that  the 
granting  of  a  bonus  will  not  do  much  for  the  soldier 
after  all,  and  that  it  will  constitute  no  permanent  good 
for  him.  The  principal  element  is  the  spiritual :  to  re- 
fuse the  bonus  is  felt  to  be  ingratitude,  and  this  is  to 
be  avoided  as  an  evil  spirit.  But  at  the  same  time 
no  one  will  be  found  to  say  that  to  grant  the  bonus,  a 
mere  $10  or  $1-")  for  every  month  of  service,  is  an  ade- 
quate show  of  gratitude.  It  doesn't  discharge  the  debt. 
Heaven  help  us  if  we  measure  our  gratitude  to  our 
soldiers  by  the  amount  of  any  bonus. 

So  there  are  the  two  points :  the  bonus  pays  nothing. 
It  is  a  small  and  temporary  aid  to  men  who  may  be  in 
need  of  ready  money  by  reason  of  unemployment,  but 
who  would  prefer  a  return  of  their  rightful  work  in  the 
world  to  anything  else  we  could  do  for  them. 

The  American  Soldier,  the  boy  who  left  shop  and 
store  and  office  and  school,  taking  a  year  or  two  out  of 
his  life  to  settle  the  military  question  overseas,  should 
not  be  placed  in  a  false  light  in  all  this  discussion.  He 
is  not  asking  for  charity.  He  would  not  take  charity. 
He  should  not  be  used  in  argument  or  plea  as  if  he 
were  asking  or  exjjecting  charity. 

But  he  has  a  right  to  ex])ect  tliat  after  having  done 
what  we  asked  him  to  do,  we  shall  give  him  the  oppor- 
tunity to  regain  the  i)]ace  he  left,  and  shall  leave  noth- 
ing wanting  in  our  effort  to  restore  him  to  the  same 
degree  of  comj^etence  which  he  had  l)eforc. 

'I  hat  is  one  of  the  really  black  blots  on  our  whole 
war  organization.  We  had  a  splendid  organization  for 
the  handling  of  copper,   for  exani])le.     We  had  many 


FORD    IDEALS 


men  ready  to  leap  in  and  offer  their  services  where  it 
was  a  matter  of  rounding  up  war  supplies.  Our  war 
government,  with  its  price  fixers  and  its  general  manip- 
ulators of  "understandings"  here  and  there,  was  cer- 
tainly an  amazing  institution.  But  when  it  came  to 
cleaning  up  the  ruck  and  riot  of  war,  there  wasn't  one 
to  help.  They  had  all  resigned.  There  is  no  profit  in 
teaching  a  blind  soldier  a  trade.  There  is  no  profit  in 
helping  to  salvage  the  human  wreckage  of  the  war. 
There  is  no  profit  in  taking  the  armless  and  the  legless 
and  the  shell-shocked  and  helping  to  restore  them  again. 
And  so  our  famous  "war  government''  is  not  on  the 
job.  It  is  out  looking  for  other  worlds  to  conquer. 
And  about  the  only  thing  we  hear  is  complaints  about 
the  mistakes  and  lacks  of  the  restorative  program,  and 
urges  for  the  bonus. 

The  soldier  has  a  right  to  complain,  although  to  his 
credit  be  it  said  that  he  is  not  complaining  for  himself 
so  much  as  for  his  wounded  "buddy"  who  isn't  getting 
the  chance  he  ought  to  have.  And  he  also  has  a  right  to 
reflect  that  the  so-called  "bonus"  is  a  mighty  little  thing 
after  all. 

In  one  state  where  it  is  proposed  to  pay  the  soldiers 
a  bonus,  no  soldier  will  receive  more  than  $300,  yet  the 
state  will  expend  about  $30,000,000  in  paying  the 
amounts,  and  an  additional  $54,000,000  for  interest  on 
the  bonds  which  it  had  to  issue  in  order  to  raise  the 
bonus  money.  There  is  the  matter  of  $1")0  to  $300 
for  the  soldier,  and  a  matter  of  $54,000,000  for  the 
money-lenders.  Indeed,  whatever  bonus  the  soldier 
gets,  he  will  pay  for  over  and  over  again  in  his  taxes. 

Now,  if  the  people  of  that  state  should  go  down  into 
their  pockets  and  by  a  self-imposed  assessment  of  about 
$10  a  head,  raise  a  fund  to  present  to  their  soldiers  as  a 
special  gift  to  tide  them  over  a  tough  time,  there  would 
be  something  tremendously  human  and  moving  about 
that.  But  the  trouble  is  that  bonuses  have  not  even 
that  much  sentiment.  They  are  first  politics,  then  they 
are  debts,  and  the  only  people  who  really  Ijenefit  are  iht 
money-lenders.  They  get  their  "bonus"  regularlv  for 
30  years  afterward. 

If  a  bonus,  no  matter  how  small  it  was,  came  as  a 


434 


INTEREST   ROBBERY    IN    BONUS   LOAN 

wreath  of  victory;  if  it  were  really  the  conscious  act  of 
the  people  in  showini^  their  appreciation,  that  would  be 
quite  another  thing.  But  all  it  amounts  to  nowadays 
is  the  sale  of  interest-bearing  bonds. 

If  a  state  really  wants  to  do  something  for  the 
soldiers,  zvhy  does  it  not  give  tJicm  the  interest?  If 
the  state  would  arrange  to  give  the  soldiers  the  interest 
on  the  projected  bonus  loans,  the  soldiers  would  get 
nearly  twice  as  much,  and  the  state  would  save  the  en- 
tire principal. 

To  give  its  soldiers  $30,000,000  the  state  in  question 
is  going  to  give  the  money-lenders  $34,000,000 ;  a  total 
of  $84,000,000  in  all  to  finance  the  giving  away  of 
$30,000,000.  If  the  state  would  give  its  soldiers  the 
interest,  $r)4, 000,000,  it  would  save  the  principal,  or 
$30,000,000.  And  the  soldiers  would  get  nearly  twice 
as  much. 

If  a  state  can  pay  interest  to  the  banks,  it  can  pay 
interest  to  the  men  it  ought  to  help. 

Now  the  soldier  himself  does  not  regard  our  sys- 
tem as  a  very  good  one,  when  it  works  out  that  way. 
Pie  is  not  impressed  with  the  wisdom  of  a  system  that 
mortgages  a  state  for  30  years  in  a  great  sum,  and  still 
doesn't  do  much  for  the  soldier. 

,If  the  bonus  really  set  the  soldier  u])  for  life,  if  it 
established  him  in  his  place  as  a  professional  man,  com- 
mercial man,  mechanic  or  farmer,  if  the  bonus  settled 
anything  at  all,  it  might  be  worth  any  state's  effort  to 
do' it. 

But  what  does  a  scrawny  $l.-)()  to  $300  do  for  a 
man?  It  is  totally  inadequate  as  a  testimonial  of  the 
state's  gratitude  ;  it  is  totally  inadecjuate  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  soldier  in  his  place  in  the  world. 

When  you  give  a  soldier  $300  and  ;i  ])anker  $.-)4() 
interest  for  the  i)rivilegc,  it  would  seem  much  wiser  as 
well  as  much  kinder  to  give  the  soldier  the  $")10  in- 
terest and  save  the  $300,  thus  costing  the  state  only  $'M0 
when  measured  by  the  other  plan.  And,  if  the  state 
wanted  to  go  as  far  as  it  goes  un<k'r  the  bond  jilan, 
let  the  soldier  have  the  $300  and  the  $•')  10  too.  $S  10.  and 
let  the  state  pa\-  both  interest  and  princi]ial  to  herself. 

The  best  I)onus  that  can  l)e  gi\cn  the  soldier  is  a 

435 


FORD   IDEALS 


place  to  work  where  he  can  snap  his  finger  at  bonuses, 
and  a  state  to  live  in  where  the  money-lenders  have  not 
the  deciding  voice  about  everything. 

Money  is  the  least  valuable  of  all  the  commodities, 
yet  it  brings  the  highest  price ;  and  though  we  have  the 
manufacture  of  it  in  our^own  hands  as  a  nation,  yet  it 
is  the  scarcest  of  all  the  things  we  make.  The  control- 
lers of  money  were  able  to  smooth  the  way  for  the  sol- 
dier when  they  wanted  him  to  fight ;  they  seem 
strangely  helpless  to  smooth  the  way  for  him  now  that 
he  only  wants  to  work. 

There  is  doubtless  a  duty  and  a  debt  to  those  who,  in 
response  to  our  call,  suffered  loss,  of  whatever  kind  the 
loss  may  be.  Certainly  there  is  an  element  of  fairness 
in  the  consideration  that  the  man  who  stayed  at  home 
and  had  a  year  or  two  advantage  over  the  man  who 
went,  should  not  thus  put  the  soldier  at  a  disadvantage. 
The  breaks  of  war  were  many ;  they  must  be  repaired 
where  possible;  many  of  the  breaks  can  never  be  re- 
paired. But  can  it  be  done  in  this  slip-shod,  half- 
hearted borrowing  which  profits  nobody  but  the  lender  ? 
If  a  state  desires  to  give  its  soldiers  $30,000,000,  let  it 
tax  its  people  for  that  amount,  instead  of  taxing  its 
people  for  $84,000,000  in  order  to  expend  $30,000,000. 

The  soldier  himself  would  be  of  that  opinion. 


43b 


On  Being  Fit  for  the 

New  Era 


IT  HAS  become  common  and  almost  boresome  to  say 
that  we  are  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  era.  It  ought 
to  be  one  of  the  most  startling  announcements  that  any- 
one could  make  or  hear.  But  it  has  always  been  true 
that  great  changes  have  come  over  the  human  race, 
never  to  be  noticed  until,  a  century  after,  some  observ- 
ing soul  has  said,  "That  was  a  great  period  back  there 
one  hundred  years  ago."  We  understand  gunshots  and 
wars  and  industrial  failures  and  depression,  but  the 
real  changes  of  which  these  are  the  passing  signs,  go 
mostly  over  our  heads. 

The  trouble  is  we  don't  realize  that  the  "new  era''  is 
going  to  mean  something  to  us — something  different 
than  we  have  supposed.  We  think  everything  is  going 
to  be  lovely  and  that  the  world  is  to  be  humored  along 
in  its  old  ways. 

In  short,  when  it  is  said  that  we  are  entering  a  new 
era  it  is  accepted  as  meaning  that  now,  at  last,  things 
are  going  to  be  very  nearly  what  we  lazily  wanted  them 
to  be. 

We  have  been  using  the  phrase  for  comfort,  when 
really  it  is  challenge. 

If  it  were  said  that  tomorrow  we  are  to  wake  up  on 
another  continent  to  make  our  lives  over  again,  it  would 
not  be  regarded  as  a  very  soothing  sort  of  statement. 
We  should  find  it  hard  to  lie  back  in  our  chairs  and 
say,  "Well,  times  are  going  to  be  all  right  again."  The 
knowledge  that  we  were  to  begin  anew,  under  unknown 
conditions,  would  keep  us  awake  and  alert. 

You  remember  how  it  was  when  you  went  to  school. 
It  was  great  to  be  promoted,  but  the  "next  grade"  was 
never  viewed  with  ease  of  mind.  That  "next  grade" 
loomed  up  before  you  with  its  unknown  tests  and  tasks. 
and  your  mind  was  set  to  grapple  with  something 
bigger  than  you  had  yet  encountered. 

437 


FORD    IDEALS 


Well,  something  like  that  should  be  our  feeling  when 
we  contemplate  the  fact  that  we  are  entering  upon  a 
"new  era."  It  is  the  next  grade.  We  are  not  going 
back  to  retravel  familiar  ground,  we  are  entering  upon 
a  new  continent  with  new  tests  and  new  tasks.  The  past 
is  past  in  a  double  sense  now ;  not  only  is  the  Time  that 
made  it,  gone ;  but  the  temper  and  principles  out  of 
which  it  was  built  are  gone  too. 

All  the  mature  generations  of  today  have  grown  up 
in  the  era  of  their  own  fathers.  There  were  improve- 
ments upon  their  fathers'  times,  of  course,  but  the  gen- 
eral period  was  the  same.  Sires  and  sons  were  in  the 
same  "grade,"  so  to  speak,  one  nearer  the  beginning  of 
the  "term,''  the  other  nearer  the  end.  The  sons  have 
now  come  to  the  end  of  the  "term."  The  road  ahead  is 
untraveled.     The  conditions  to  be  passed  are  new. 

Just  why  this  comes  about  as  it  does,  no  one  knows. 
It  would  be  useless  to  guess.  Something  has  been 
switched  off,  and  something  else  has  been  switched  on. 
The  time  that  was,  is  not ;  the  time  that  is  to  be,  begins. 
One  course  of  lessons  has  been  finished,  the  doors  of  the 
next  "grade"  open. 

There  seems  to  be  a  difference,  however.  In  school, 
there  is  an  examination.  The  standard  you  maintam 
in  your  examination  determines  your  fitness  to  leave 
the  lower  graded  In  the  present  change  that  is  reversed  ; 
examinations  will  determine  whether  we  are  fit  to  enter 
the  higher  grade — the  new  era.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
in  matters  of  character  a  man  stays  on  the  lower  plane 
until  he  is  ready  to  enter  the  higher  plane ;  but  when  the 
new  era  is  fully  arrived  there  will  not  be  vestiges  ot  tiie 
old  era  left — all  the  people  will  be  New  Era  People  who 
have  shown  themselves  fit  to  be  promoted.  The  others 
will  have  vanished  as  worn-out  and  unprogressive  races 
have  always  vanished. 

You  see,  therefore,  that  it  is  more  than  an  eloquent 
flourish  of  words  to  say  that  "we  are  on  the  threshold 
of  a  new  era."'  It  is  as  startling  to  the  individual  as  was 
the  anncumcement  of  the  new  conscription  law  in  1017. 
The  question  for  every  individual  is.  What  will  it  mean 
to  me?     .Am  1  fit  to  be  one  of  the  New  Era  People? 

438 


ON    BEING    FIT    FOR    THE    NEW    ERA 

Am  I  going  to  pass  the  examination  requirements  into 
the  new  time? 

The  test  is  going  to  be  made  all  down  the  line,  but  it 
is  going  to  begin  at  what  we  call  the  "top."  There  will 
always  be  leaders.  Even  in  anarchic  Russia  they  have 
leaders — very  hard  leaders,  too.  Leaders  are  necessary 
and  have  a  special  part  to  i)lay  and  bear  an  extra  degree 
of  responsibility.  We  say  leaders  are  at  the  "top,"  pre- 
sumably because  they  ought  to  be  found  at  the  head  of 
the  column.  And  that  is  where  the  testing  and  weeding 
out  is  to  commence. 

It  is  in  process  now.  We  are  not  speaking  of  some- 
thing that  will  begin  next  year ;  we  are  speaking  of  what 
has  silently  overshadowed  the  world  for  several  years. 
It  is  a  Day  of  Judgment  for  the  leaders  of  the  old  era. 
If  they  cannot  pass  their  examinations,  if  their  faces 
are  not  toward  the  future,  if  their  hearts  are  not  more 
devoted  to  righteousness  than  to  the  preservation  of 
some  old  and  respected  iniquity,  they  fail.  Thcv  dis- 
appear.   New  leaders  take  their  places. 

Look  where  you  will — in  railroading,  in  banking,  in 
manufacturing,  in  commerce,  in  teaching  or  preaching, 
in  making  newspapers,  in  farming — evervwhere  the 
New  Era  is  crowding  in  and  is  crowding  out  those  who 
are  against  its  ccMuing.  It  is  not  merely  a  matter  of 
new  and  better  ways  of  doing  things,  but  a  new  and 
better  s])irit  and  jmrpose  in  doing  them.  There  have 
been  New  Era  People  in  the  world  for  some  time,  but 
they  have  been  rated  as  "fools";  now  their  dav  is 
come. 

1'his  is  news  worth  while  for  the  young  fellow.  It 
is  genuine  news.  He  has  been  hearing  for  a  long 
time  past  that  opportunity  was  prcttv  well  sewed  up. 
Indeed,  certain  labor  leaders  have  written  and  preached 
that  no  one  has  anv  right  to  expect  to  imi)rove  his 
condition  in  the  world,  that  "the  laboring  class"'  con 
stitutcd  an  iron-bound  caste  out  of  which  it  was  prac- 
ticalh'  impossible  for  an\'()ne  to  break. 

Of  course,  no  one  ever  breaks  out  of  "the  labor- 
ing class"  tmless  he  turns  grnnbler  or  sonu-  other  sort 
of  fmancial  criminal.  Honest  men  stay  in  "the  labor- 
ing class"  all   their  lives.      I'ut   this   is   what   the   false 

439 


FORD   IDEALS 


teachers  mean :  that,  a  man  need  not  hope  to  rise  to 
his  own  level  of  ambition  and  ability  in  the  laboring 
class,  and  that  is  false.  This  is  the  New  Era,  and 
New  Era  People  are  in  demand  to  fill  the  places  of 
old  era  leaders  who  failed  in  their  examinations ;  and 
the  present  time  is  the  most  glorious  period  to  be  young 
and  ambitious.  There  wasn't  much  chance  during  the 
last  years  of  the  old  era,  that  is  why  it  closed  so  quick- 
ly. But  it  is  morning  again  and  a  new  day  is  full  of 
opportunity. 

The  only  "hold  overs"  from  the  old  era  are  the 
qualities  which  gave  it  its  worth.  They  are  the  old- 
fashioned  virtues  of  honesty,  industry  and  courage. 
They  are  just  as  necessary  now  as  in  the  first  year 
after  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  or  the 
first  year  after  the  Civil  War.  Ini  fact,  they  are  never 
out  of  date.  Many  people  seem  to  think  that  the  New 
Era  is  merely  another  chance  for  them  to  work  their 
old  games,  cheating  the  laws  of  value,  the  laws  of 
work,  and  every  other  good  law.  Not  at  all.  The 
old  era  died  of  these  old  games,  and  died  in  discred- 
itable circumstances,  too. 

Rewards  will  not  be  less  but  greater  in  the  New 
Era.  New  Era  People  are  going  to  produce  as  much 
or  more,  but  they  are  going  to  have  a  larger  share  in 
it,  they  will  live  broader  lives.  The  world  is  going  to 
continue  practical — always  practical — even  more  prac- 
tical than  before,  because  the  world  was  not  practical 
while  it  tried  to  break  the  laws  of  value,  and  work, 
and  justice.  Some  people  had  the  notion  that  in  the 
New  Era  we  were  to  sit  down  under  the  trees  and  spin 
beautiful  theories.  No;  we  are  going  to  spin  beauti- 
ful realities  on  the  loom  of  more  and  better  work. 


440 


Much  Nonsense  in  Titles 


RECENTLY  a  financier  made  a  speech  in  which 
he  said  a  few  plain  things  about  the  effect  of 
titles  in  business.  He  was  of  the  opinion  that  it  was 
being  very  much  overdone.  He  thought  he  observed 
harmful  effects  on  industrial  and  business  organiza- 
tions by  this  method  of  decoration,  and  he  seemed  to 
feel  that  something  ought  to  be  done  about  it. 

It  is  a  refreshing  sign  of  the  times  that  a  business 
man  could  be  found  who  had  the  courage  to  stand  up 
at  a  banquet  and  talk  about  so  simple  a  matter.  It 
is  refreshing  because  it  shows  a  willingness  to  climb 
down  from  the  pedestal  and  look  at  the  machinery  of 
business  as  it  actually  works. 

We  are  all  going  back  to  work — even  the  men  in 
the  front  office.  Business  has  made  a  discovery,  it  has 
rediscovered  work.  The  magic  of  money  has  been  ex- 
ploded and  the  invincible  jx)wer  of  work  is  again  be- 
coming appreciated. 

Business  men  have  believed  for  too  long  a  i^eriod 
that  you  could  do  anything  by  "financing"  it.  The 
most  frequent  item  of  business  news  that  has  marked 
the  past  five  years  has  related  to  hundreds  upon  hun- 
dreds of  concerns  that  have  been  "refinanced."  The 
process  of  "refinancing"  is  simply  the  game  of  sending 
good  money  after  bad.  In  the  majority  of  cases  the 
need  of  "refinancing"  has  arisen  through  bad  manage- 
ment, and  the  effect  of  "refinancing"  is  simply  to  pay 
the  poor  managers  to  keep  up  their  bad  management 
a  little  longer.  It  is  merely  the  post])onemcnt  of  the 
day  of  judgment  which  is  overtaking,  and  nuist  over- 
take, all  concerns  that  have  not  played  fair  witli  the 
law  of  Use  and  Service. 

This  makeshift  of  "refinancing"  is.  of  course,  a 
device  of  the  speculative  financiers.  Their  nidney  is 
no  good  to  them  unless  tiiey  can  connect  it  up  with 
a  i)lace  where  real  work  is  being  done,  and  they  cannot 
connect   it   up  with  a  ])lace  where  real  work   is  being 


FORD    IDEALS 


done  unless,  somehow,  that  place  is  poorly  managed. 
Thus,  the  speculative  financiers  delude  themselves  that 
they  are  putting  their  money  out  to  "use."  They  are 
not ;  they  are  putting  it  out  to  waste,  and  the  end  of 
the  transaction  is  usually  a  sad  experience. 

That,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  elements  in  the  present 
condition  of  affairs  which  has  troubled  the  country, 
but  from  which  there  is  now  a  promise  that  we  shall 
emerge. 

Take  the  railroads,  for  example.  Theirs  has  been 
one  long  story  of  dependence  on  money  before  every- 
thing else.  True,  the  railroads  are  a  great  national 
institution.  True  also,  there  have  been  men  of  vision 
connected  with  their  development.  But  the  major  part 
of  railroad  history  has  had  to  do  with  stock  markets 
and  games  of  exploitation. 

Today  far  too  many  railroads  are  run,  not  from  the 
offices  of  practical  men.  but  from  banking  offices,  and 
the  principles  of  procedure,  the  whole  outlook,  is  finan- 
cial— not  transportational,  but  financial. 

There  has  been  a  breakdown  of  railroading  gener- 
ally, in  this  the  greatest  railroad  country  in  the  world, 
simply  because  more  attention  has  been  paid  to  rail- 
roads as  factors  in  the  stock  market  than  as  servants 
of  the  people.  Outworn  ideas  have  been  retained,  de- 
ve1o])ment  has  been  practically  stopped,  railroad  men 
with  vision  have  not  been  free  to  grow — the  dead  hand 
of  finance  has  been  heavy  on  every  department. 

As  a  result — what?  \Miy.  it  is  thought  that  per- 
haps One  Billion  Dollars,  or  thereabout,  will  solve  the 
difficulty.  Let  this  be  understood — One  Billion  Dol- 
lars will  only  make  the  difficulty  One  Billion  Dollars 
worse.  The  pur])ose  of  the  billion  is  simply  to  con- 
tinue the  present  methods  of  railroad  management, 
and  it  is  because  of  the  jiresent  methods  that  we  have 
any  railroad  difficulties  at  all. 

This  is  not  new.  Every  business  man  who  thinks, 
knows  it.     But  it  is  bard  to  get  out  of  the  ruts. 

Going  back  to  dependence  on  Work  and  not  on 
Money  will  make  a  big  difference  everywhere,  and  one 
of  the  effects  will  be  the  displacement  of  titles  by  real 
i()l)s.  Titles  arc  tdo  often  the  dress  uniform  that  should 
i)C  laid  aside  for  field  uniform. 


MUCH    XOXSENSE   IN   TITLES 


A  foreign  observer,  in  a  recent  book,  has  written 
that  in  America  we  are  very  strong  on  titles.  Every- 
body seems  to  be  a  president  of  something.  There  is 
a  story  of  a  President  of  the  United  States  .sojourning 
in  the  country  and  calling  up  the  village  post  office 
on  the  phone.  "Thii^  is  the  President,"  .said  he.  "Pres- 
ident of  what?"  inquired  the  boy  at  the  other  end. 
In  his  village  there  were  plenty  of  presidents,  from  the 
town  government  to  the  ladies'  aid  .society. 

Most  men  can  swing  a  job.  but  they  are  floored  by 
a  title.  The  effect  of  a  title  is  very  ])eculiar.  It  has 
been  used  too  much  as  a  sign  of  emancipation  from 
work.  It  is  almost  equivalent  to  a  sign — "This  man 
has  nothing  to  do  but  regard  himself  as  important 
and  all  others  as  inferior."  Not  only  has  it  been  in- 
jurious to  the  wearers,  but  it  has  had  its  effect  on 
others  as  well.  There  is  perhaps,  no  greater  single 
source  of  personal  dissatisfaction  among  men  than  the 
fact  that  the  title-bearers  are  not  always  the  real  lead- 
ers. Everybody  acknowledges  a  real  leader,  a  man 
who  is  fit  to  ])lan  and  command  ;  but  there  are  moun- 
tains of  evidence  everywhere  that  the  real  leaders  are 
not  always  the  titlebearers.  And  when  you  do  find  a 
real  leader  who  bears  a  title,  you  will  have  to  inquire 
of  some  one  else  what  his  title  is.     lie  doesn't  boast  it. 

It  has  been  greatly  overdone  and  business  has  suf- 
fered from  it.  One  of  its  specially  bad  effects  is  such 
a  division  of  responsibility  as  amounts  to  a  removal 
of  resj)onsil)ilit}'  altogether.  Where  res])onsil)ilitv  is 
broken  u])  into  man}-  small  Ijits  and  divided  ])etween 
many  departments,  each  dejiartment  under  its  own 
titular  head,  who  in  turn  is  surrounded  by  a  grou]) 
bearing  their  nice  sub-titles,  it  will  be  difficult  to  find 
anyone  who  reallv  feels  res])onsible. 

Everyone  knows  what  "i)assing  the  I)uck"  means, 
and  the  game  mu>t  have  originated  in  industrial  or- 
ganizations where  the  departnieni-^  simply  >lio\e  re- 
sponsibility along. 

The  health  of  e\er\-  organization  (U'])en(ls  on  e\ery 
member  of  it,  whati'ver  his  ])lace,  feeling  that  e\ery- 
thing  that  happens  to  eoine  to  his  notice  relating  to 
the  welfare  of   the  business,  i>  u])  to   liini.      Kaih'oads 


FORD    IDEALS 

have  gone  to  the  devil  under  the  eyes  of  departments 
that  say,  "Oh,  that  doesn't  come  under  our  depart- 
ment"— some  other  department  100  miles  away  has 
that  in  charge,  and  the  interests  of  the  road  go  to  rot 
and  ruin  while  each  department  tries  to  keep  within 
its  own  narrow  limits. 

There  was  formerly  a  lot  of  advice  given  to  offi- 
cials not  to  hide  behind  their  titles.  The  very  neces- 
sity of  the  advice  showed  a  condition  that  needed  more 
than  advice  to  correct  it.  And  the  correction  is  just 
this — abolish  the  titles.  A  few  may  be  legally  neces- 
sary ;  a  few  may  be  useful  in  directing  the  public 
where  to  do  certain  kinds  of  business  with  the  concern, 
but  for  the  rest  the  best  rule  is  to  get  rid  of  them. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  record  of  business  just 
now  is  such  as  to  detract  very  much  from  the  value 
of  titles.  No  one  would  boast  of  being  president  of 
a  bankrupt  bank.  Well,  business  has  not  been  so  skill- 
fully steered  as  to  leave  much  margin  for  pride  in 
the  steersmen.  The  right  to  bear  titles  is  to  be  won 
all  over  again ;  the  field  is  open ;  past  honors  are  with- 
ered ;  the  contest  is  on  anew. 

The  men  who  bear  titles  now  and  are  worth  any- 
thing are  forgetting  their  titles  and  are  down  in  the 
foundations  of  their  business  looking  for  the  weak 
spots.  They  are  back  again  in  the  places  from  which 
they  rose  trying  to  reconstruct  from  the  bottom  up. 
They  are  leaders  in  the  reconstruction.  And  when  a 
man  is  in  that  work,  he  doesn't  need  titles.  His  work 
decks  him  with  honors. 


Developing  Talent  in  a  Small 
Community 


WHEN  the  passing  of  city  life  is  discussed,  and 
the  rediscovery  of  the  small  town  is  affirmed,  one 
of  the  commonest  questions  to  arise  is  this:  "What 
are  your  small  towns  going  to  do  for  the  advantages 
of  the  city — the  theater  and  entertainments,  for  ex- 
ample?" That  is  the  form  in  which  the  question  usu- 
ally comes,  with  an  anxiety  ahout  the  "theater  and 
entertainments." 

The  question  assumes  two  conditions :  First,  that 
a  majority  of  city  people  attend  the  theater  and  other 
entertainments  to  such  an  extent  that  these  institu- 
tions have  hecome  a  necessary  element  in  their  lives ; 
and,  second,  that  the  theater  and  entertainments  nor- 
mally fulfill  the  human  desire  and  need  for  recreation. 
Neither  of  these  assumptions  is  true. 

It  may  be  found  to  be  just  a  question  whether  the 
theater  is  as  popular — in  point  of  attendance  compared 
with  the  population — as  it  was  .")0  years  ago.  The 
totals  are  larger,  but  it  may  be  doubtful  that  the  pro- 
portions are.  We  are  not  half  so  theater-mad  as  some 
people  suppose.  The  proportion  of  regular  attendants, 
people  who  haunt  the  theater,  who  are  always  looking 
over  the  list  of  shows  for  "a  place  to  go  tonight,"  is 
not  very  great.  In  a  certain  city  where  it  was  as- 
sumed that  the  theater  was  carrying  everything  before 
it  and  that  church  attendance  was  a  contemptible  little 
quantity  in  comparison,  it  was  found  that  the  church 
with  one  day  a  week  excelled  in  drawing  power  all 
the  legitimate  theaters  of  that  city  with  seven  nights 
a  week  and  two  matinees.  Leaving  the  modern  theater 
wf)ul(l  not  be  such  a  terrible  loss,  as  tens  of  thousands 
who  have  moved  to  the  small  town  can  testify. 

And  as  to  the  "entertainment"  \alues  of  llie  mod- 
ern commercialized  amusement  enter])rise,  the  bored 
audiences  of  any  large  city  bear  elociuently  silent  wit- 


FORD   IDEALS 

ness.  The  fresh,  bhthe  wholesomeness  which  repro- 
duces the  childishness  of  human  Hfe  is  lacking.  Real 
entertainment  is  lacking  and  would  be  undoubtedly 
considered  as  amateurish,  so  depraved  has  the  public 
taste  become  through  bedroom  farces  and  bathroom 
dramas.  Those  who  are  inoculated  with  the  sordid 
sensuousness  of  the  stage  would  undoubtedly  miss  that 
kind  of  thing  in  the  small  town,  just  as  the  drug  addict, 
locked  in  a  sanitarium,  would  miss  his  favorite  poison. 

However,  that  still  leaves  the  question  where  it 
was :  what  are  the  small  towns  to  do  for  recreation, 
for  the  indulgence  of  the  play  spirit?  The  play  spirit 
is  a  part  of  life.  Its  misdirection  leads  to  harm.  In 
youth  especially  it  is  a  safeguard,  in  maturity  and 
age  a  recreative  force.  Temperaments  differ,  but  taken 
l)y  and  large  the  human  race  7vill  play. 

There  are,  however,  no  profits  in  mere  playing. 
That  is  the  reason  amusements  became  commercialized. 
Instead  of  play,  there  arose  the  spectacle.  People 
ceased  to  play,  and  watched  players.  Football  is  a 
husky  game,  but  of  the  thousands  of  "fans"  who  shout 
for  football,  how  many  take  the  risks  of  it?  The  same 
is  true  of  baseball ;  it  is  called  "sport"  to  sit  on  the 
bleachers  and  boo  or  boost.  We  are  mere  spectators ; 
other  men  do  the  so-called  "playing,"  and  because  we 
are  merely  spectators  their  playing  is  not  Play  at  all, 
but  work.  There  is  no  community  of  entertainment 
and  enjoyment,  there  is  no  participation. 

In  the  small  town  of  the  future  there  will  be  a 
Little  Theater,  and  the  i)lay  instinct  of  the  people 
will  work  itself  out  through  themselves,  not  by  wage 
earners  called  "actors"  or  "players."  There  will  l)e 
many  actors  and  ]:)layers.  of  course,  but  they  will  not 
l)e  under  the  commercial  domination  which  every  sin- 
cerely devoted  actor  and  player  feels  today.  The  great 
geniuses  in  the  dramatic  world  will  still  have  their 
vogue — or.  to  state  it  more  accurately,  their  vogue  will 
return,  because  in  these  sad  days  dramatic  genius  is 
not  necessary.  The  art  of  play  will  be  like  the  art 
of  music.  im])orted  into  the  community  for  daily  con- 
sumption, and  not  retained  in  the  concert  hall  as  dra- 
matic art  is  retained  in  the  modern  theater.     The  thea- 

446 


DEVELOPING  TALENT  IN  A  SMALL  COMMUNITY 

ter  as  a  servant  of  life  is  being  tided  over  these  de- 
structive times  by  the  Little  Theater  which  is  spring- 
ing up  in  small  communities,  where  the  people  are 
developing  themselves. 

The  commercial  monopoly  of  this  natural  phase  of 
life  is  being  broken.  And  why  not?  If,  when  a  writer 
completes  a  story,  we  may  all  have  a  copy  of  it  to  read 
in  our  own  homes ;  why  may  we  not  also  have  the 
play  of  the  playwright,  interpreted  in  our  own  com- 
munity by  our  own  people  in  our  own  way?  The 
question  has  been  answered.  The  flow  of  people  back 
to  the  country  places  is  bringing  with  it  these  new  pos- 
sibilities. And  the  benefit  is  double :  the  country  is 
being  lifted  out  of  the  crude  and  inexpressive  practices 
into  which  its  play  exercise  degenerated  for  the  lack 
of  inspiration — a^id — the  people  from  the  city,  are  being 
benefited  by  the  wholesome  restraint  which  comes  from 
amusements  which  have  their  rise  and  issue  in  the 
same  community. 

That  is  a  point  well  worth  remembering:  when  the 
community  shall  ])rovide  its  own  recreation  and  enter- 
tainment out  of  its  own  resources  and  by  means  of 
its  own  people,  indecency  will  simply  automatically 
disappear.  \\'hy?  Well,  consider  what  constitutes  the 
present  situation :  a  theater  audience  gathers,  a  few 
hundreds  from  a  city  of  half  a  million  or  a  million 
people,  an  audience  of  strangers.  The  shield  of  ano- 
nymity protects  them  all.  Young  women  are  there, 
but  they  reflect  that  no  one  knows  them.  The  j^eojjle 
on  the  stage  are  from  another  city,  strangers,  too.  The 
condition  is  ideal  for  putting  across  anything  which 
common  shame  would  otherwise  prevent. 

Now,  in  the  home  town,  with  the  home  folks  in 
the  chairs  and  home  folks  on  the  stage,  it  would  sini])ly 
be  impossible — there  is  not  enough  brazenness  in  hu- 
man nature  to  permit  home  folks  to  enact  bedroom 
farces  before  home  folks,  or  to  revel  on  the  stage  in 
matter  that  would  not  be  permitted  witliin  a  thousand 
miles  of  any  home-town  parlor. 

'i'hat  will  be  one  of  the  effects  of  a  return  to  the 
small  town,  and  a  necessity  of  drawing  ujjon  the  coin- 
nnuiity's  creative  powers  to  supply  the  normal  need 
for  entertainment. 


FORD    IDEALS 


Of  course,  the  principle  extends  further.  Refer- 
ence has  been  made  to  amusements  only  because  it 
was  involved  in  the  question  which  has  been  asked. 
But  the  principle  applies  to  every  element  of  com- 
munity life.  City  living  has  made  us  entirely  too  de- 
pendent. City  dwellers  will  soon  lose  the  art  of  build- 
ing fires.  Most  of  the  other  domestic  arts  are  "lost 
arts"  already.  And  the  art  of  providing  entertainment 
or  amusement  for  ourselves  was  about  to  disappear. 

The  ideal  community  is  self-sustaining  to  a  greater 
extent  than  any  community  now  is.  If  near  flowing 
water,  every  community  should  be  self-sustaining  in 
matters  of  power,  heating  and  lighting.  Every  com- 
munity in  the  midst  of  an  agricultural  district  should 
be  self-sustaining  in  the  matter  of  food.  The  grain 
grown  near  by  should  be  milled  near  by,  a  sufficient 
supply  reserved  and  the  surplus  sent  to  the  great  cen- 
ters of  consumption.  Each  community  should  be  con- 
structed out  of  materials  near  at  hand,  and  thus  pre- 
serve unity  with  its  basic  soil.  And  each  community 
should  derive  from  the  wellsprings  of  its  own  life  those 
finer  inspirations  and  recreative  activities  which  put  a 
bloom  and  a  flavor  upon  life.  It  is  all  contained  in 
that  principle  known  as  "self-development."  The  re- 
ward of  self-development  should  be  self-sustenance, 
with  the  communitv  as  well  as  with  the  individual. 


448 


Parties  Are  Born,  Not  Made 


POLITICAL  parties  are  like  poets,  born,  not  made. 
And  yet  political  parties  have  been  found  to  be 
so  useful  to  certain  purposes  and  interests  that  numer- 
ous attempts  have  been  made  to  manufacture  them  for 
occasion.  A  political  party  is  a  publicity  organization, 
a  semi-legislative  organization,  often  a  coercive  organ- 
ization which  can  render  more  service  to  special  inter- 
ests than  it  can  sometimes  render  to  the  public. 

The  people,  of  course,  who  are  living  mostly  in  the 
nursery  atmosphere  with  regard  to  these  things,  imag- 
ine that  a  political  party  is  a  fellowship  of  conviction 
upon  certain  principles.  That  is  what  it  ought  to  be ; 
and  it  is  the  belief  that  the  jxilitical  party  is  just  that, 
which  keeps  it  going.  But  the  party  is  other  than 
that.  It  would  take  almost  psychic  eyes  to  see  just 
what  the  so-called  political  organizations  consist  in, 
what  holds  them  together,  where  their  ramifications 
run,  and  what  ty])e  of  mind  it  is  that  finds  congenial 
the  atmosphere  of  the  "organization."  Perhaps  it  is 
the  least  moral  organization  in  the  workl,  outside  the 
realm  of  those  which  are  distinctively  subversive. 

And  yet,  such  is  the  irony  of  things,  this  lower 
network  of  organization  forms  the  basis  for  much 
good  work.  All  men  who  are  interested  in  jiolitics 
are  not  on  the  inside  of  the  "organization,''  not  at  all. 
The  real  motive  power  of  politics,  so  far  as  the  motion 
of  the  people's  mind  is  concerned,  is  in  the  "idea," 
the  "issue,"  the  genuine  proposals  of  government  policy 
and  legislative  action.  But  these  seldom  have  their 
source  in  tlie  "organization."  They  are  imported  from 
the  people.  -Ml  that  the  "organization,''  t)r  tlie  "party" 
does  (the  "party"  not  being  the  whole  nuinbor  of  ad- 
iierents,  ])ut  tlie  hierarchy  of  leaders)  is  to  sort  out 
the  possible  issues  and  select  the  group  which  they 
think  will  "sell"  at  the  election.  .Any  other  set  of 
issues — even   c|uite  opposite   issues — wouUl   do   just   as 


FORD   IDEALS 


well  if  they  would  "sell."  The  main  object  is  to  keep 
the  "organization"  in  offices.  The  party  never  gets  the 
offices ;  only  the  "organization"  does  that.  As  a  whole, 
our  offices  are  manned  by  the  prettiest  lot  of  political 
gamesters  that  any  country  ever  saw. 

So,  there  we  have  the  genesis  of  two  evils.  One 
evil  is  the  existence  of  a  party  which  has  neither  po- 
litical nor  moral  principle,  but  which  lives  for  the  thing 
called  "ix)wer,"  using  as  its  steps  to  power  such  "issues" 
as  appeal  to  popular  approval ;  the  other  evil  is  the  view 
of  certain  ajx)stles  of  moral  or  political  principles  that- 
a  political  organization  can  be  whisked  into  existence 
by  publicity  agent  methods,  to  serve  the  purpose  of  a 
certain  candidate  or  a  certain  principle  for  a  single 
election  only.  So,  on  the  one  hand  we  have  the  pol- 
iticians whose  object  is  office,  poking  around  a'naong 
possible  "issues,"  ignoring  the  ones  which  would  re- 
quire moral  courage  to  espouse,  and  choosing  the  ones 
that  seem  ready  to  ripen  in  a  campaign ;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  we  have  the  possessors  of  progressive 
ideas  looking  for  a  party  to  "put  them  across." 

It  is  a  situation  which  speaks  indisputably  of  the 
sorry  collapse  which  has  overtaken  political  effort  in 
this  country. 

The  "third  party"  demonstrations  have  been  a  sign 
of  the  same  condition.  The  only  third  parties  that  ever 
had  a  reasonal)le  and  sincere  motive  and  ])urpose  were 
never  permitted  to  attain  party  maturity,  because  the 
older  parties  took  their  issues  and  rode  to  power  upon 
them.  An  illustration  of  this  may  be  seen  in  the  adop- 
tion of  tlie  Prohibition  Party's  most  distinctive  j^lank 
by  both  the  older  parties. 

Lately  our  "tiiird  parties"  have  been  launched  either 
for  the  purpose  of  putting  a  candidate  across  (which 
must  1)6  the  final  judgment  on  Mr.  Roosevelt's  eflfort) 
or  for  the  pm-pose  of  cementing  the  radical  elements 
of  ]:)olitical  disorder  and  giving  them  the  respectable 
appearance  of  political  organization.  Both  were  vivid 
commentaries  on  the  truth  that  ]X)litical  parties  are 
born,  not  made,  ^\'hen  the  genuine  Third  Party  comes, 
it  will  not  be  a  Third  Party  at  all.  but  the  Fir.st  Party, 
relegating    both    old    parties    to    secondary    status.      It 


450 


PARTIES     ARE    BORN',     NOT     MADE 

will  be  a  national  party,  summoning  New  Era  Men 
from  all  the  old  parties,  and  from  no  party  at  all,  to 
do  the  work  which  others  have  neglected. 

We  do  not  need  a  "third  party"  in  the  United 
States,  we  need  a  ])arty  that  is  hrst  for  /Vmericanism, 
by  which  we  mean  the  principle  that  the  fiilhllment 
of  life  consists  in  the  largest  liberation  of  the  creative 
and  constructive  forces  in  nature  and  in  humanity  for 
the  service  and  prosperity  of  all.  Americanism  is  com- 
munistic only  in  that  it  stands  for  a  community  benefit, 
instead  of  an  exclusive  personal  benefit,  proceeding 
from  all  industrial,  financial  and  political  activity.  The 
Old  Era  was  individualistic  in  its  objective.  The  New 
Era  will  remain  necessarily  individualistic  in  its  meth- 
od, but  will  enwrap  the  whole  community  in  its  ob- 
jective. Communism  fails  just  because  it  is  not  com- 
munism, because  it  is  individualism  of  a  type  that  de- 
feats the  benefits  of  individuals,  and  so  cheats  also  the 
community  of  its  benefits.  We  are  individuals  in  action 
and  communists  in  responsibility. 

The  division  between  modern  parties  is  not  political, 
nor  ])hilosophical,  nor  moral  any  longer,  but  ])urcly 
sentimental.  All  of  the  old  subjects  of  division  are 
now  subjects  of  scientific  examination  and  adjustment. 
Locally,  politics  has  come  to  be  a  ])reference  of  indi- 
viduals for  office:  one  group  wishes  to  place  this  man, 
another  wishes  to  ])lace  the  other  man.  .\  sufticient 
number  of  exj)ericnced  electioneers  finds  this  kind  of 
politics  a  sport,  to  give  it  zest.  lint,  as  for  the  pro- 
found ])olitical  convictions  wbicii  marked  the  birth  and 
the  vigorous  years  of  the  Democratic  and  Republican 
parties,  they  simply  don't  e.xist. 

The  two  great  parties  are  being  used — that  is.  the 
"organization"  of  them  is  being  used  more  and  more 
as  bidwarks  against  the  changes  which  must  inevitably 
overtake  the  stui)i<lities  and  injustices  which  have  be- 
come fastened  in  oiu'  nation.'d  lite.  l'.\ery  old  slogan 
which  warns  the  ]ieople  against  ])rogress  as  somethini.^' 
dangerous  f\n(\<.  its  liearty  echo  in  the  ]io]itical  "organ- 
ization." 1"hc  "organization"  knows  nothing  ahoiU  ti- 
nance,  administration,  intei-national  relations  literall\- 
nothing   al)out    anytliing   that    all'eets   the   heart    of    our 


FORD   IDEALS 

national  life — but  it  is  always  ready  with  the  cries 
which  sustain  the  old  order  of  things. 

That  is  where  the  two  old  parties  are  in  the  great- 
est danger:  they  have  anchored  to  an  era  that  is  even 
now  growing  dim  in  the  distance :  unless  they  cut  the 
cable,  they  will  disappear  with  it. 

And  it  is  just  here  that  we  mark  the  fatal  distinc- 
tion between  party  and  people.  The  people  do  not 
comprise  the  party.  Parties  are  merely  bidders  for 
the  people's  suflfrage.  When  parties  disappear  the  peo- 
ple remain.  This  is  the  logic  of  third  parties.  The 
old  parties  simply  die  off  the  limb  like  leaves  that  have 
ceased  to  nourish  themselves  with  the  life  of  the  tree 
that  bore  them.  The  people  grow  and  keep  growing. 
If  parties  lag  behind,  as  parties  now  are  lagging  be- 
hind, a  new  party  is  inevitable — not  to  put  a  chosen 
candidate  across,  not  to  stampede  the  people  for  a  new 
"interest."  but  as  an  expression  of  the  life  of  the  peo- 
ple. Parties  are  the  people's  political  clothing;  when 
the  coat  grows  too  small  it  is  discarded. 


452 


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